Tamara Hardesty, a West Virginia native, found early on that music would be her life. With degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and a Masters degree from the Curtis Institute she went on to the San Francisco Opera’s Merola program and also toured with its Western Opera Theater as Zerlina and Susanna.Since then, she has appeared with such companies as Lake George Opera, Sarasota Opera, l’Opéra Français, Bronx Opera, Whitewater Opera and DiCapo Opera in a variety of roles including Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Pamina in Zauberflöte, Drusilla in The Coronation of Poppea, Morgana in Alcina and Adele in Die Fledermaus.
Ms. Hardesty made her Kennedy Center debut last season as soloist with the Washington Chorus in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and she has appeared with the Westchester Oratorio Society, the St. Joseph Symphony in Missouri, the Oskaloosa Symphony and the Ottumwa Symphony in Iowa and the Haddonfield Symphony in New Jersey. Her concert repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, the Fauré Requiem, Poulenc Gloria, Mozart Exsultate Jubilate, Schubert Mass in G and Mass in A flat, Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Brahms A German Requiem, and Rutter Magnificat.
She has given numerous lieder recitals in New York City at Steinway Hall, Klavierhaus, St. Peter’s Church, St. Paul’s Chapel and in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She has also performed in charity events to benefit victims of the September 11th 2001 tragedy.
