During Kathryn Wright’s extensive career, she has moved from coloratura, singing leading roles with numerous US opera companies to appearances with over 60 orchestras in the US and Canada, and more recently to a major emphasis on contemporary music.
Early on she created the starring role in Starbird by Henry Mollicone at the Kennedy Center, and as a member of the New Music Theater Ensemble in Minneapolis, she premièred numerous musical theater works, including entirely improvised operas. For the past few years she has worked with numerous American composers, many of whom have written works for her. Thus she has performed and frequently recorded works by Beth Denisch, Artur Welwood, Andreas Macris, Jerzy Sapieyevsky, Louis Stewart and Jack Jarrett — whose songs she has recorded recently with the London Symphony Orchestra.
She has appeared with the New England League of Composers, the Harvard Music Association, the Boston Chamber Ensemble, the Harp Congress in Prague, and with the Chanctonbury Chorus and Orchestra in England. In New York City she was seen most recently as Frau K. in the première of Melissa Shiflett’s opera Dora.
With orchestra, Ms. Wright has performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Mozart’s C-minor Mass, and Berg’s Lulu Suite — the latter with the San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart conducting. At the Kennedy Center, she sang Songs of the Rose by Jerzy Sapieyevsky, which she had earlier premièred. In one of her numerous appearances with the National Chamber Orchestra she premièred Andrea Markis’ Symphony for Soprano and Strings. Recent performances include a chamber work, Arthur Welwood’s Songs of Kabir at the Seventh International Harp Congress in Prague; The Wild Iris, a song cycle première for soprano and orchestra by Arthur Welwood with the Connecticut Valley String Orchestra; and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and opera arias from Madama Butterfly, Mefistofele and Il Trovatore with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic. She also premièred One Blazing Glance, a chamber work for soprano, by Beth Denisch this season in Boston.
She was the soloist in the world première of Travelers Through Eternity by Louis Stewart for soprano, chorus and orchestra with the Chanctonbury Chorus in Steyning, England. Ms. Wright wrote the text for the last movement and has also co-written and performed works by other Boston composers.
Ms. Wright, who is presently on the faculties of the Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory, has also taught at the Beijing Conservatory for the past two summers.
She may be heard on Capstone Records in a song cycle by Arthur Welwood, Songs of Kabir; in Skillfully Stuffed Memories, a CD of orchestral songs by Jack Jarrett with the London Symphony, to be released shortly; and on Juxtab Records in Star Goddess, for voice and harp, by Beth Denisch.
