Biography
Download PDF file View picture galleryMezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane is “a singer whose dark, bottomless voice is matched by her expressiveness and intelligence.” The press has described her singing as “clear, rich, plangent,” “compelling and dramatic,” and possessing “agility and charisma.” She has been featured by many of the most prestigious institutions and orchestras in the US and abroad. These include the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opéra Monte Carlo, Opéra du Caen, and the San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and National Symphony, with conductors ranging from Robert Shaw, Robert Craft, Michael Tilson Thomas, Graeme Jenkins, Nicholas McGegan, Monica Huggett, William Christie, Mark Minkowski, and Andrew Parrott, as well as with period instrument ensembles such as Freiburger Barock, Philharmonia Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, Les Arts Florissants, and Les Musiciens du Louvre, in concerts throughout the US, Europe, South America, and the Middle East.
Ms. Lane has over fifty CD recordings to her name on a wide variety of labels, as well as two films: Dido & Aeneas (with the Mark Morris Dance Group and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra) and The Opera Lover, a romantic comedy. Both films are available on DVD. Among her most recent CD recordings are Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex(Jocasta), Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder(Waldtaube), and Schoenberg’s song cycle Das Buch Der Hängenden Gärten, all for Naxos; The Pleasures & Follies of Loveand Villancicos y Cantadas for Koch; and 17th Century French Airs de Cour with Ensemble Orinda for www.Magnatune.com.
During the 2013-2014 season, Jennifer Lane sang Handel arias from Radamisto, Giulio Cesare, and Orlandowith the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Bach Solo Cantatas 54 and 170 with the Washington Bach Consort, and a recital of Haydn and Mozart with Hungarian fortepianist, Petra Somlai. During the 2012-13 season, she recorded Milhaud’s massive Orestiewith an all-Metropolitan Opera cast under the supervision of composer William Bolcolm, and sang Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin with Opera Naples, B Minor Mass with the Santa Rosa Symphony, Messiahwith Tempsta di Mare, and gave a solo recital at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. She has performed in Opera Gala concerts for Nantucket Island Arts & Music. Ms. Lane premiered the lead female role of Charmian Londonopposite baritone Rodney Gilfrey as Jack London in Everyman Jack, in a newly commissioned opera by Phillip Littell and Libby Larson produced by Sonoma City Opera, about the life of author and adventurer, Jack London. She recently sang the title role of Carmenin the Astoria Festival’s production of the Peter Brook adaptation, and the role of Marcellina in Palm Beach Opera’s Le Nozze di Figaro under the direction of Mario Corradi.
As part of the 20th anniversary season of the Four Nations Ensemble, with whom she recorded two CDs for Gaudeamus (Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos and The Cantatas of Antonio Caldara), she performed songs and arias by Mozart and his predecessors at the New York Historical Society. Ms. Lane was the vocal soloist for the marriage ceremony of Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, now Governor of California. Se toured Arizona and California with Grammy nominated ensemble, El Mundo, performing Baroque Villancicos y Cantadas, sang Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, and Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler), with the Turning Point Ensemblein Vancouver. In commemoration of the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin’s founder, she performed the highly virtuosic role of Apollo in Handel’s Terpsicore. She returned to BPI to perform and record the Alto I solos in St. Matthew Passion, in celebration of BPI’s 40th anniversary. Ms. Lane was Alto soloist in St. Matthew Passion with Soli Deo Gloria in Chicago, John Nelson conducting, and with Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival’s St Matthew Passion, where she returned in April 2014 for St. John Passion and Magnificat. At Duke University, Ms. Lane recently performed the role of Storge in Handel’s Jephtha. This role, and the role Dejanira in Hercules, which she performed in a staged version at the Blackfriars Theatre as part of the Staunton Festival, are among her signature Handel roles. Her Handel roles further include Solomon, Orlando, and Tolomeo, performed at Carnegie Hall, the Halle Festival, Germany, and at Aix-en-Provence. Other appearances include Charpentier’s Te Deum with Kent Tritle and the NY Oratorio Society in Carnegie Hall, Music from the Court of Ferrara at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and the role of Micah in Handel’s Samson, with Dallas Opera Director, Graeme Jenkins. In 2012, she performed the role of Irene in Handel’s Theodoraat the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, again with Graeme Jenkins, directing.
Jennifer Lane has directed operatic productions for La Folia Baroque in Austin, Texas, Stanford University, the Lake Placid Institute in New York and at the Blackfriars Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton, Virginia. Her productions at the Blackfriars include Dido & Æneas, in which she also sang the dual roles of Dido and Sorceress, another of her signature roles, Handel’s Semele, in which she sang the dual roles of Juno and Ino, and Handel’s Acis & Galatea. Ms. Lane held the position of Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky-Lexington before being recruited to the University of North Texas as Associate Professor in 2007. Prior to UK, Ms. Lane was on the faculty at Stanford University for nine years. Ms. Lane teaches regularly at summer workshops including the Amherst Early Music Festival, San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS), Lake Placid, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and the Madison summer workshops, among others. At Stanford, she produced and directed seven fully staged operas: Dido & Æneas, The Magic Flute, A Childhood Miracle, A Game of Chance, Der Schauspieldirektor, A Hand of Bridge, and Hin und Zurück. Also at Stanford, she created an early music vocal and instrumental Collegium Musicum which, during its third year, performed Shadwell & Dryden’s The Tempest. Students of Ms. Lane’s have won awards from the Metropolitan Opera Council, the Orpheus Competition, the Holt Foundation and students in KY and TX have won 1st Place Awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Ms. Lane’s students have been admitted for graduate study at Peabody, Manhattan, the Royal Academy of Music/London, Indiana University, McGill, and Eastman. A number of them are enjoying active national and international opera, concert, and teaching careers.