Here’s a brief guide to the mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who will be performing Mahler’s Rückert Lieder at the 2024 BBC Proms, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and their conductor Dalia Stasevska.
Who is Jamie Barton?
Jamie Barton is an American mezzo-soprano whose career took off in earnest when she won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition (in both the Main and Song categories) in 2013.
Where is Jamie Barton from?
The singer was born in Georgia, US in 1981. Following studies at Shorter College in her home town of Rome and then at Indiana University, she began her career at Houston Grand Opera.
Where did she make her debut?
Barton made her professional operatic debut in 2007, singing the role of Annina, the maid, in Verdi‘s La traviata at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
Other roles soon followed, including three with the Houston Grand Opera for their 2008/09 season:, as Ursula in Berlioz‘s Béatrice et Bénédict, as Giovanna in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and as Mrs Ronaldson in the world premiere of André Previn‘s Brief Encounter.
Jamie Barton then made her Metropolitan Opera debut during 2009/10, as the Second Lady in Mozart‘s The Magic Flute. During 2011, Barton played Mère Marie in Poulenc‘s Dialogues des Carmelites at the Bavarian State Opera.
- We named The Magic Flute one of the greatest operas of all time
That year, she made her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, singing the Voice of the Mother in Offenbach‘s The Tales of Hoffmann, the Nurse in Mussorgsky‘s Boris Godunov, and the Dryade in Richard Strauss‘s Ariadne auf Naxos. Then, in the summer of 2012, Barton made her big Wagner debut, singing the Second Norn in Götterdämmerung with the Bavarian State Opera.
In 2013, Barton won both the Song Prize and the Main Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, leading to major engagements worldwide. ‘She’s a great artist, no question,’ wrote The Guardian‘s critic.
More appearances in opera houses around the world followed, including at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in London.
Jamie Barton: also good to know…
Her debut recital album, with pianist Brian Zeger, featured songs by Mahler, Sibelius and Dvořák. It won in the Vocal category of the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Awards. The year 2018 was a good one for Barton, in fact: she also sang at the Last Night of the Proms, under the baton of the late and much-loved conductor Sir Andrew Davis.
- Watch: Andrew Davis’s memorable conclusion to the 1992 Last Night of the Proms
- Six of the Best: Last Nights of the Proms
Then, two years later, Barton was back at our awards, winning Personality of the Year at the 2020 BBC Music Magazine Awards.
And outside the world of music? Barton’s enthusiasms include Doctor Who, musicals, bluegrass and Monty Python.