Benita Valente

2004 Regional Judge

The distinguished American soprano Benita Valente is one of this era's most cherished musical artists. An internationally celebrated interpreter of lieder, chamber music, and oratorio, she was equally acclaimed for her performances on the operatic stage. Her keen musicianship encompasses an astounding array of styles, from the Baroque of Bach and Handel to the varied idioms of today's leading composers. In recent seasons she has become a dedicated teacher, sharing her many talents and knowledge with today's emerging vocalists.

In 1999, Chamber Music America honored Benita Valente with their highest award, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, for her contribution to the chamber music genre. As the first vocalist so honored, she joins a distinguished list of previous recipients including pianist, Rudolf Serkin with whom she collaborated for many years as a participant at the prestigious Marlboro Festival. Their, now legendary, recording of The Shepherd on the Rock serves as a beacon for performers of vocal chamber music. Other major instrumental collaborators have included the Guarneri, Juilliard and Orion String Quartets, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and pianists Emanuel Ax, Leon Fleisher, David Golub, Richard Goode, Seymour Lipkin, Lee Luvisi, Cynthia Raim and Peter Serkin. Committed to augmenting the vocal chamber music repertoire, Miss Valente was privileged to have works written for her by composers: William Bolcom, Alberto Ginastera, John Harbison, Earl Kim, Libby Larsen and Richard Wernick.

Benita Valente has been sought as an orchestral soloist by nearly every great conductor of the last two decades, including Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Mario Bernardi, Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Comissiona, James Conlon, Edo de Waart, Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Rafael Kubelik, Erich Leinsdorf, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Nicholas McGegan, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Julius Rudel, Robert Shaw and Klaus Tennstedt. With these conductors she has appeared with every great symphony in the United States, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, and San Francisco. In Canada she has appeared in concert with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, the Toronto Symphony and the Vancouver Symphony. In Europe she appeared with the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the London Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and others.

The California-born soprano has held the spotlight since she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. A long association with the Metropolitan Opera began with Miss Valente's debut in 1973 as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. Other roles included Gilda in Rigoletto, Nanetta in Falstaff, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Ilia in Idomeneo, and Almirena in Rinaldo. This last role, in a new production by Frank Corsaro with Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey, prompted The New York Times to write: "Benita Valente was a brilliant success, drawing one of the night's most sustained ovations." Other notable operatic engagements include Ginevra in a Santa Fe production of Ariodante, opposite Tatiana Troyanos; Euridice in a Santa Fe production of Orfeo, opposite Marilyn Horne; the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro in the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production conducted by Daniel Barenboim for the Washington Opera; Dalilah in Handel's Samson for the Teatro Comunale in Florence; Almirena in Rinaldo in a Pier Luigi Pizzi production in Parma and other Italian theaters; and concert performances of Pelléas et Mélisande with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition to repeating her Santa Fe Opera success in Orfeo at the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Benita Valente continued her association with the operas of Handel by appearing as Alcina at Vancouver Opera. In her final operatic performances, Miss Valente was acclaimed for her performances as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera, at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Opera Pacific in California, and at the Santa Fe Opera.

Benita Valente was the guest soloist for the inaugural concert of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and returned to that established series frequently. She also appeared often at the Cincinnati May Festival, the Mann Music Center, Tanglewood and the Aspen, Chautauqua, Grant Park, Ravinia and Grand Tetons Festivals, and, in Europe at the Vienna, Edinburgh, and Lyon Festivals. In addition to her festival orchestral appearances, Miss Valente appeared regularly at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and opened the 1993 Festival in a gala performance. The soprano frequently appeared as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well.

Benita Valente is particularly beloved by connoisseurs of song literature. A highlight of her recital career was her sold-out engagement at Carnegie Hall, which followed by less than a year a sold-out solo recital at Alice Tully Hall. Briefly It Enters, a song cycle written for Miss Valente by William Bolcom and set to the poetry of Jane Kenyon, was premiered at the University Musical Society at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and included as the centerpiece of her final recital at Lincoln Center.

Miss Valente's recorded repertoire includes seven highly regarded Lieder albums, three with pianist Cynthia Raim for Pantheon (Wolf and Strauss Lieder; Handel, Mozart and Schubert Lieder; Mozart Schubert and Wolf Lieder), Gerhard songs with Tan Crone for Etcetera; Schubert and Schumann Lieder with Lee Luvisi for Eurodisc/BMG; Fauré and Debussy songs with pianist Lydia Artymiw for Centaur Records; and Mozart, Wolf, Schubert and Brahms Lieder with Richard Goode for Telefunken. Two solo albums, one with Mozart and Handel works and the other featuring the Spanish and French repertoire, are also available on Pantheon. For RCA she has recorded Handel's Roman Vespers and an album of Christmas music, both with Michael Korn and the Philadelphia Singers. Symphonic works include the Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony (Pro Arte); the Mahler Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" with Gilbert Kaplan and the London Symphony Orchestra (MCA Classics); A Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams with The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin (BMG), the Pergolesi Stabat mater as arranged by Bach with the American Bach Soloists (Koch International) and the Liszt Christus with James Conlon and the Rotterdam Philharmonic (Erato). She also recorded Love Songs and Lullabies with Baritone Thomas Allen and Guitarist Sharon Isbin for Virgin Classics. A record of her acclaimed collaboration with mezzo-soprano Tatiana Troyanos is available on the MusicMasters disc Handel and Mozart Arias and Duets which was conducted by Julius Rudel. Miss Valente received a Grammy nomination for her Sony Classical recording of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ and a Grammy Award for her Columbia recording of Schoenberg's Quartet No. 2, both performed with the Juilliard String Quartet.

The soprano's most recent recordings include William Bolcom's song cycle Briefly It Enters and his cantata, Let Evening Come (Centaur Records), and Libby Larsen's Songs From Letters From Calamity Jane to Her Daughter Janey and Songs of Light and Love with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Joel Revzen, (Koch International). Both the Bolcom and Larsen works were composed for her. A recording of three string quartets written for her with the Juilliard String Quartet: Harbison's The Rewaking, Ginastera's String Quartet No. 3, and Wernick's String Quartet No. 5 is soon to be released.

In recent seasons, Miss Valente is increasingly sought after, and has devoted more of her schedule to serving, as a master teacher. She has served as the Master Artist at the Cincinnati Conservatory program in Lucca, Italy and at the European Mozart Academy in Poland, with the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program and at Ravinia's Steans Institute for Young Artists. This season she will return as a Master Teacher with the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program. The soprano participates annually in the Marlboro Festival in Vermont where she works with young vocalists in a chamber music environment. She has given Master Classes under the auspices of the Aspen Music Festival, with the Atlanta Symphony Chorus, Chautauqua Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, The Music Academy of the West, the Napa Valley Symphony, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Pittsburgh Opera, San Francisco Performances, Santa Fe Opera, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. She has also given master Classes at Boston University, Cornell University, The Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, University of New Hampshire, University of Wisconsin at Madison and for the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She has participated on the jury of The Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital at The Juilliard School, The Astral Foundation in Philadelphia, the International Schumann Competition in Zwickau, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Walter W. Naumberg Foundation, Young Concert Artists and the Hugo Wolf Akademie Competition in Stuttgart. Miss Valente serves on the Board of Directors of Joy in Singing, the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the Walter W. Naumberg Foundation.

Benita Valente resides in Philadelphia with her husband, Anthony Checchia.

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