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American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, whose voice has been hailed as “dark and bright, soft and loud, serene and vivacious,” is a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council awards and a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Born in Rome, Georgia, Jamie's love of music began at a very early age with the influences of bluegrass and gospel music that her family loved and often played. During the years of her early teens she developed an affinity for musical theater and classical music, and since then her fondness for beautiful music of any kind bloomed into a passion for opera, concert, and oratorio.
Jamie made her professional operatic debut as Annina in La Traviata at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2007, and has worked with them covering roles such as Olga Olsen in Street Scene, Katisha in The Mikado, Mrs. Rochester in the American premiere of Michael Berkeley's Jane Eyre, and Betsy in the world premiere of David Carlson’s Anna Karenina. She will return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to perform the role of Suzuki in their 2008 performance of Madame Butterfly. As a masters student at Indiana University, Jamie performed the roles of the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Buttercup in HMS Pinafore, and Mrs. Soames in the 2006 world premiere of Ned Rorem's Our Town. In January of 2008 she made her Houston Grand Opera operatic debut in the role of the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte.
Vivid and expressive on the recital stage, Miss Barton opened the 2007-2008 Marilyn Horne Foundation On Wings of Song recital series with pianist Kathleen Kelly with enormous success. She has received extensive training as a recitalist at the Tanglewood Music Center where she was a Fellow in Vocal Studies for the summers of 2006 and 2007. While working at Tanglewood Music Center, Jamie had the pleasure of working with artists and coaches such as Dawn Upshaw, James Levine, Ira Siff, Alan Smith, Olly Wilson, Lucy Shelton, Kayo Iwama, and Phyllis Curtin. Since beginning her training with the Houston Grand Opera Studio she has participated in several recital series including the popular Recital at Rienzi. While Jamie’s recital repertory includes many musical eras, she has devoted quite a bit of time to the ever expansive category of 20th century and new music, adding the works of Charles Ives, Betsy Jolas, Paul Hindemith, Anna Jacobs, and Olly Wilson to her extensive recital repertory.
Miss Barton made her Spivey Hall and her Atlanta NPR debut singing Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody in 2000. Other concert and oratorio performances include the world premiere of Chris Theofanidis’s The Refuge with the Houston Grand Opera, Durufle’s Requiem, Bach’s Cantata 198, Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, Honegger’s King David, and Mozart’s Requiem for which she has been featured as a soloist a number of times and has had the pleasure of covering Susan Graham in the 2006 Tanglewood Music Center performance with James Levine.
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