Cynthia Haymon Soprano
Cynthia Haymon’s career has taken her around the USA with engagements at the San Francisco Opera and the Seattle Opera. In 1986 she made her European debut as BESS in Trevor Nunn's production of Porgy and Bess at Glyndebourne after which she was invited at the opera houses in London (Royal Opera), Paris (Bastille), Hamburg, Munich and Brussels and performed under conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur and Simon Rattle. In concert, she performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Cynthia Haymon was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Since making her debut in 1985 as Thea Musgrave's Harriet, A Woman called Moses for the Virginia Opera world premiere, her career has taken her around the USA with engagements that include MICAELA/Carmen with the San Francisco Opera and SUSANNA/Le nozze di Figaro and LIU/Turandot with the Seattle Opera.
In 1986 she made her European debut as BESS in Trevor Nunn's production of Porgy and Bess at Glyndebourne. The following season she sang LIÚ/Turandot on the Covent Garden tour of the Far East, and repeated the role at the Royal Opera House in a performance that was telecast live throughout Europe. Other Covent Garden appearances include the roles of BESS/Porgy and Bess and MIMI/La Bohème. Further European engagements include LIU in Hamburg and Munich, AMOR/Gluck's Orfeo at the Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels, and PAMINA in Robert Wilson's production of Die Zauberflöte at the Bastille. Miss Haymon also sang MICAELA in the Israel Philharmonic’s staged production of Carmen directed by the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and conducted by Zubin Mehta. She also created the role of CORETTA KING in the musical King opposite Simon Estes in London's West End.
In concert, Cynthia Haymon has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic under Kurt Masur, the London Symphony Orchestra under both Myung-Whun Chung and Michael Tilson Thomas, the Cleveland Orchestra under Isaiah Jackson and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of Ned Rorem's Swords and Plowshares. Miss Haymon made her debut at the Royal Albert Hall as BESS/Porgy and Bess at the BBC Proms.
Her discography includes Tippett's A Child of Our Time with Richard Hickox and the LSO and MIMI/La Bohème for Chandos Records for Chandos and her first solo recording, Where the Music Comes From American Songs for Decca's Argo Label; the programme, accompanied by pianist Warren Jones, features art songs by American composers. She also portrays BESS on the EMI Porgy and Bess recording, which won a 1990 Grammy Award and was recorded from the original Glyndebourne production.
Other engagements include LEÏLA/Les Pêcheurs de Perles with the Tulsa Opera, BESS at the Bregenz Festival and the Teatro Real in Madrid, LIÙ with the Dallas Opera, MARGUERITE/Faust with the Seattle Opera and POPPEA with the De Nederlandse Opera. She performed the role of EURIDICE/Orfeo ed Euridice in Leipzig with Ivor Bolton and made her debut with the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome in Bernstein's KADDISH. Last season she sang the role of LEÏLA / Les Pêcheurs de Perles at Portland Opera, EILEEN in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town in a concert performance with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Wayne Marshall and POPPEA in Pierre Audi’s production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York.
Future and recent engagements include PAMINA Magic Flute for Cleveland Opera, LIU Turandot with Portland Opera and Opera Omaha, Verdi’s Te Deum and Elijah with James Conlon and the Cincinnati Symphony, Philip Glass's Symphony with Michael Bartlett and the Indianapolis Symphony, BESS Porgy and Bess with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and a Child of our Time with the Northern Sinfonia. She looks forward to singing her first TOSCA with Opera North Carolina and to performing a new work by Andea Breth at the Ruhrtrienniale in Dusseldorf.
February 2007
Audio file:
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