Elaine Bonazzi
2008 District Judge

The American mezzo-soprano, Elaine Bonazzi, is Batchelor of Music of the Eastman School of Music.

Elaine Bonazzi's appearances in opera, oratorio, and recitals have been acclaimed in North America and Europe for their profound characerizations and superlative vocalism. She has appeared with many leading opera companies, orchestras, and music festivals in the USA. and abroad, including the New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Netherlands Opera, the Bellas Artes Opera (Mexico City), the Metropolitan Opera (in their initial and only season of chamber operas in two leading roles), the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Spoleto, Venice, Glimmerglass, Wolf Trap, Bach Festivals in Berlin and Leipzig, and Mostly Mozart festivals, working with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Boulez, Leopold Stokowski and Lorin Maazel. Elaine Bonazzi has presented more operatic premieres than any other living American singer; she has been personally selected by eminent composers, including Stravinsky, Copland, Carter, Sondheim, Argento, Chavez, Menotti, Rorem and Thomson to perform their works. She has sung with just about all the major American symphonies.

Elaine Bonazzi was Performing Artist in Residence for SUNY Stony Brook. She currently teaches voice privately in NYC. Before Stony Brook, Ms. Bonazzi taught at Peabody Institute of Music, and she has presented master classes all over the world.

Elaine Bonazzi can be heard on more than 25 recordings on the Columbia, CRI, Vox Candide, Vanguard and Nonesuch labels. A recital recording that Bridge Records released last year, "The Art of Elaine Bonazzi" has received grand reviews from all the record magazines and from Opera News.

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