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“The hidden treasure of the performance was Tamara Mumford, a mellow, wine-dark mezzo that ­projected ­effortlessly even in the lowest register.”

The New York Post

“Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford’s instrument was heady and bittersweet; her appearance in the Tanglewood season-concluding performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is much anticipated.”

The Boston Globe

“Tamara Mumford brought wonderfully rich tone to the mezzo-solos.”

The Los Angeles Times

“Ms. Mumford was revelatory. Vocally she was secure throughout her range, with dusky depths, ringing heights, and chilling passages of half-sung sprechgesang…”

The New York Times

“The mezzo-soprano for Sunday’s performance was Tamara Mumford, whose dark voice lent natural weight to her solo in the fourth movement; yet there was a radiant calm to her singing, as she sat just above the brushing whispers of the orchestra with her plaintive cries of “O mensch.” She sang with a smoldering focus in the following movement, providing a stark contrast to the bright clarity of the cries of “Bimm! Bamm!” from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.”

New York Classical Review

A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford made her debut there as Laura in Luisa Miller, and has since appeared in more than 140 performances with the company, some of which include the Pilgrim in the new production of Kajia Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Smeaton in the new production of Anna Bolena, and in productions of Rigoletto, Ariadne auf Naxos,  Il Trittico, Parsifal, Idomeneo, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nixon in China, The Queen of Spades,  the complete Ring Cycle, The Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Wozzeck.   Other recent opera engagements have included the world premiere of The Thirteenth Child at the Santa Fe Opera, her role debut as the title role in Tancredi with Teatro Nuovo, the first ever American performances of  Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira at the Caramoor Festival, L’Amour de loin at the Festival d’opéra de Québec, Iolante at the Dallas Opera, the title role in the American premiere of Henze’s Phaedra,  the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, and the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s Yardbird at Opera Philadelphia;  the title role in Dido and Aeneas at the Glimmerglass Festival,  Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and the BBC Proms, Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia at the Caramoor Festival , Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Palm Beach Opera, the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, conducted by Lorin Maazel at the Castleton Festival; the title role in Carmen at the Crested Butte Music Festival, Principessa in Suor Angelica and Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano in Italy; and the title role in La Cenerentola at Utah Festival Opera.

Also an active concert performer and recitalist, Ms Mumford appeared with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in US and European tours of the world premiere of John Adam’s oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary and in performances of Mahler Symphony No. 3. She also appeared with the Mo. Dudamel and the LAPO in performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in a production by Yuval Sharon and the Chilean theater group Teatrocinema. Other concert engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Utah Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and Milwaukee Symphony orchestras; the Berlin Philharmonic (in Berlin and on tour in Asia), the Netherland Radio Philharmonic, and at the Hollywood Bowl and the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Grand Teton, Vail, Tucson Desert Song, Britt and La Jolla Summer Music festivals.  She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 as part of the Richard Good and Friends concert series in Zankel Hall, and has since appeared there with James Levine and the Met Chamber Orchestra. She has also made multiple appearances in the Musicians from Marlboro’s summer festivals and US tours. In recital she has been presented in New York by the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Frick Collection, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Ms Mumford has appeared in the Metropolitan Opera’s Met: Live in HD series broadcasts of Anna Bolena, Das Rheingold, Gotterdämmerung, Ariadne auf Naxos, The Magic Flute, Nixon in China, Manon Lescaut, and Il Trittico.  She also appears on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, (Deutsche Grammophon) which won the 2022 GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance. Other recordings include Handel’s Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Momon Tabernacle Choir), Beethoven’s Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (Avie), and John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon). She was one of sixteen singers invited to work with Naxos Records and Yale University in a collaborative project to record the complete songs of Charles Ives.

This season Ms. Mumford makes her role debut as Erda in Das Rheingold at both the LA Philharmonic and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and appears in concert with the San Francisco Symphony, Boston Baroque, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at the world-renowned Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico.

A native of Sandy, Utah, Ms. Mumford holds a Bachelors of Music from Utah State University and has received awards from the Opera Index Competition, Palm Beach Opera Competition, Sullivan Foundation, Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, Joyce Dutka Foundation Competition and the MacAllister Awards.

SEPTEMBER 2023