Katharine Dain
American-Dutch soprano Katharine Dain is a musician of insatiable curiosity and unusual imagination, active in opera, orchestral repertoire, oratorio, and chamber music in Europe and North America. After taking the top prize in the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand Competition with a performance called a “revelation” by Diapason, Dain debuted as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the opera houses of Clermont-Ferrand, Avignon, Rouen, Massy, and Reims. Highlights of recent seasons include Mozart’s Donna Anna with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Kenneth Montgomery (Netherlands and Belgium) and at the Armel Opera Festival (Hungary and Ecuador), orchestral song cycles of Dutilleux and Berlioz with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Bancroft (Glasgow), a tour of Wagner’s “Liebestod” and a commissioned work by Rick van Veldhuizen with the Nederlands Studenten Orkest under Manoj Kamps, and songs of Berg and Zemlinsky with Het Collectief under Reinbert de Leeuw at Austria’s Osterfestival.

Dain debuted with the Dutch National Opera in Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, a co-production of its Talent Development Programme and the experimental company Silbersee, and has reprised the role in New York and Buenos Aires. A noted interpreter of contemporary scores, she has recently performed Andriessen, Gubaidulina, Saariaho, Adams, Reich, Carter, and Stockhausen (among others) with ensembles including Asko|Schönberg, LUDWIG, the New European Ensemble, the Antwerp Symphony, and Oerknal. She has become known for jump-ins on unusual repertoire: Luigi Nono’s Il Canto Sospeso at the Holland Festival under Ingo Metzmacher (and later at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Roberto Abbado), a Concertgebouw recital of Marx, Korngold and Strauss songs called “a miracle” by Place de l’Opera, appearances at the West Cork and Aldeburgh Festivals, and the world premiere of Jan van de Putte’s Insonia with Asko|Schönberg and Cappella Amsterdam—a performance that was broadcast live from the Concertgebouw’s Zaterdagmatinee series and later released commercially on Etcetera Records.

Dain also has a lengthy CV in oratorio and orchestral repertoire. Some highlights include Matthäus-Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Messiah in Carnegie Hall; Carmina Burana in the Concertgebouw; and Stravinsky Les Noces with the New York City Ballet. In the 2019-20 season, Dain revisited Messiah with the Nieuw Philharmonie Utrecht under Johannes Leertouwer, performed the Bach solo cantata “Jauchzet, Gott” in London and New York, and sang Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem throughout the Netherlands and Dvorak Stabat Mater in Prague.

A passionate promoter of chamber music and recital repertoire, she has co-founded several ensembles, including Damask Vocal Quartet, whose 2018 debut album of Brahms and his contemporaries on 7 Mountain Records, “O schöne Nacht,” won France’s prestigious Choc de Classica award and universal acclaim in the press. She has also performed with the Quiroga, Ragazze, Navarra, Van Brugh, Carducci, Callino, and Momenta string quartets; she often curates programs of chamber music and song and is a repeat guest at Ireland’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival.

Educated at Harvard University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Mannes College of Music, Katharine currently lives in Rotterdam.