Musical America
April 2015

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has added the 2015 Richard Tucker Award to her trophy case, a $50,000 prize granted annually to an American singer “on the threshold of a major international career.” Actually, Barton, 33, is already well on her way, having  been named the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and granted the mantle of “fresh wonder of the opera world” by the ever-influential New Yorker. She is also a winner of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Kennedy Center’s 2014 Marian Anderson Award.

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Worcester Telegram & Gazette
February 2015

It's understandable that Rome could be an inspiration for an opera singer. That's certainly true for mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who will give a recital at 8 p.m. Feb. 7 in Mechanics Hall, Worcester, for the Artist Night program presented by Music Worcester Inc. Cardiff, Wales, has also been important for Barton, who won both the Main and the Song Prizes at the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a biennial event that has helped several winners achieve sustained international success and acclaim in the opera world. But Rome is where the singing started for Barton. The city of Rome, Georgia, that is (population 36,000 approximately), in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. 

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Chicago Tribune
December 2014

On a recent afternoon backstage at Lyric Opera, Sondra Radvanovsky and Jamie Barton were behaving like the gal pals they are, hugging each other and singing each other's praises. Quite the contrast to the emotional sparring partners the singers are playing in Lyric's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's Anna Bolena — the castoff consort Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, Anne's lady-in-waiting and rival for the affections of the cruel King Henry VIII. Indeed, in conversation, neither the Berwyn-born soprano nor the Georgia-native mezzo-soprano came across as your standard-issue diva, however imperious they behave in the long-awaited Lyric return of Donizetti's bel canto masterpiece, which opens Saturday night at the Civic Opera House.

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Windy City Times
December 2014

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton knew that she would need plenty of plain old luck on top of her considerable talents to forge a career as a professional opera singer. But in Barton's case, winning a number of impressive opera vocal competitions particularly helped. "For me the three big launching points in my career have been because of competitions," said Barton, back again in the Windy City rehearsing her role debut as Giovanna Seymour (Jane Seymour) in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's new co-production with Minnesota Opera of Donizetti's 1830 tragedy Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn).

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Instant Encore: Classical Music Buzz
October 2014

After a wildly successful role debut of Adalgisa at the Metropolitan Opera in the fall of 2013, Jamie Barton returns to the role this fall in our season opening production of Norma. Her San Francisco Opera debut has been similarly successful leaving critics raving that her performance was "a magnificent Company debut with gleaming vocal tone and emotional urgency" (San Francisco Chronicle). All successes aside, Barton's charming personality shined in this brief interview.

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OperaRox
October 2013

Last night, I had the express pleasure and honor of interviewing mezzo Jamie Barton regarding her experiences as a singer and her recital this Sunday.  Ms. Barton recently won the 2013 Cardiff Singer of the World competition and makes her role debut of Adalgisa (Norma) at the Metropolitan Opera this month.  She will be singing Fricka for the first time in Houston Grand Opera’s Das Rheingold in the Spring.

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Schimmel Center at Pace University
October 2013

On Sunday, November 3, Pace presents will welcome the inaugural performance of the Voce at Pace recital series. The series is a rare opportunity for New York audiences to see rising opera stars in an intimate recital setting. It is curated by Matthew A Epstein. We are very excited to have Jamie Barton kick off this intriguing new series. Pace Presents blogger Michael Torbet recently sat down with the young star to discuss her upcoming recital and her career thus far.

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Associated Press: The Big Story
October 2013

She's one of the most prodigiously gifted singers of her generation, but Jamie Barton has yet to tackle the leading operatic roles she was born to perform. Instead, for now she's playing a "waiting game." Barton, who just turned 32, has a gorgeous mezzo-soprano voice, a force-of-nature-sized instrument that is centered in the middle of the female vocal range, just below soprano. In her case, that range has extensions at either end — down to contralto territory and up to high C (a note she laughingly refers to as "my trick pony").

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Parterre Box
June 2013

American mezzo Jamie Barton, who has steadily been winning fans in the US over the past few years for her rich and nuanced singing, took the international opera world by storm last weekend by winning both the Song Prize as well as the overall prize in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Watching her final program of arias from Adriana Lecouvreur, Hansel und Gretel, and Berlioz’s Les Troyens, along with a song by Sibelius, it’s hard to imagine how the international jury that included Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Felicity Palmer, Neil Shicoff and Håkan Hagegård could have chosen anyone else. 

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NPR Deceptive Cadence
June 2013

Sunday in Cardiff, Wales, young American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton joined an elite cadre of classical artists as the newest winner of the highly prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Barton also took home the 2013 Song Prize. While the 31-year-old Barton won £15,000, Cardiff is more notable for its prestige and the exposure it offers.

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