Michèle Crider

DMA

Univ.-Prof. of Voice⋅Department of Vocal Studies⋅Pre-College

Michèle Crider is regarded as one of the leading sopranos of the Italian opera repertoire and one of the few great Verdi voices of our time. Following an international career at the world’s foremost opera houses, she has taught at the Mozarteum University's Voice Faculty since 2012.

Michèle Crider completed her studies in vocal performance at the University of Iowa. After twice winning the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions, she continued her training at the Zurich Opera House Studio. She was a finalist at the Luciano Pavarotti Competition and won one of the three first prizes at the Geneva International Music Competition. This award enabled her to make her debut in Dortmund as Leonora in Il trovatore and to take part in the International Grand Prix, which she subsequently won.

She has appeared as a guest at many of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the State Operas of Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg, La Scala, the Arena di Verona, Zurich Opera House, the Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam.

She made her US debut in 1996 in a new production of Aida in San Diego. On the concert stage, she has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, in Orange, Ravenna, and Edinburgh, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Wiener Musikverein, the Salle Pleyel, and the Barbican Centre in London. She has performed with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Paris, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, and has worked with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Nello Santi, Christoph von Dohnányi, Semyon Bychkov, Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Chailly, and Sir Colin Davis.

Her repertoire includes major Verdi heroines such as Leonora (Il trovatore and La forza del destino), Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), Elvira (Ernani), Elisabeth (Don Carlo), Odabella (Attila), Lucrezia (I due Foscari), Giselda (I Lombardi), and Desdemona (Otello). She has also performed the title roles in Luisa Miller, Aida, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Norma, Manon Lescaut, and La Gioconda, as well as Imogene (Il pirata), Margherita/Elena (Mefistofele), and Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana).