Sylvia McNair

About

Born in Ohio, she graduated from Indiana University. She has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Cleveland Orchestras and has worked many times with the Atlanta Symphony conducted by Robert Shaw, the Boston Symphony with Seiji Ozawa, the St Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin and the New York Philharmonic with Kurt Masur. In Europe, Sylvia McNair has performed and recorded with the London Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas, the London Philharmonic with Masur, the English Baroque Soloists with John Eliot Gardiner, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Claudio Abbado, the Vienna Philharmonic with André Previn and Abbado, and the Berlin Philharmonic with Jeffrey Tate, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado and James Levine.

In the operatic field she made, in 1989, a triumphant debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Anne Trulove ('The Rake's Progress') followed by an equally sensational debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Ilia ('Idomeneo'). It was again as Ilia that she made her Salzburg debut in 1990 with Ozawa and Paris Opera debut with Chung. She has since sung Corinna ('Il Viaggio a Reims') and Susanna at Covent Garden and Anne Trulove, Susanna, and Poppea at the Salzburg Festival with, respectively, Sylvain Cambreling, Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 1992 she made her debuts with the San Francisco Opera as Tytania ('A Mid summer Night's Dream') and at the Metropolitan Opera, New York as Marzelline.

She has subsequently sung Pamina and Tytania at the Met.

As the first winner of the Marion Anderson Award in 1990 Sylvia McNair has chosen to devote more time to recitals and since 1992 she has performed recitals in Edinburgh, Lisbon, Brussels, London, Paris and at the Musikverein in Vienna, in Cleveland, St Louis, San Francisco, Los Angeles and in New York both at Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

She has now embarked on a major recording career. She has recently recorded Poppea with Eliot Gardiner and Susanna with Abbado for D.G. and Corinna ('Viaggio a Reims') with Abbado for Sony. For Philips Classics with whom she has signed an extensive contract, she has recorded Mozart's 'Requiem', Handel's 'Messiah' and the Faure 'Requiem' with Marriner; Mahler's Second and Fourth Symphonies with Haitink; the Beethoven Symphony No 9 with Masur; Tytania with Sir Colin Davis; Anne Trulove with Ozawa; she has made a series of 'Portrait' records, including Handel and Mozart arias with John Eliot Gardiner; a Mozart album with Marriner; an album of French Melodies accompanied by Roger Vignoles; Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen albums with Previn; and Purcell songs with Hogwood, for which she received a Grammy Award.

Sylvia McNair Newsletter