Juliana Gondek

Soprano Juliana Gondek has performed in the world's most celebrated opera houses, concert halls, and festivals. She has collaborated with some of the world's most renowned musicians, including Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Rudolf Serkin, James Levine, Carlos Kleiber, and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and she has sung leading operatic roles at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Netherlands Opera, the Edinburgh Festival, the Gцttingen and Halle Handel Festivals, Antibe's Festival de Bel Canto, Pacific Music Festival (Sapporo, Japan), Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and at Washington's Kennedy Center.

The extraordinary beauty, versatility, and range of her voice, coupled with her rare intelligence and artistry, have enabled her to move freely through an astonishing breadth of operatic repertoire. Ms. Gondek has been hailed as one of her generation's finest singing-actors, and for her impassioned portrayals of such varied
roles as Ginevra in "Ariodante," Vitellia in "La Clemenza di Tito," the three heroines in "The Tales of Hoffmann" and the title roles in Rossini's "Bianca e Falliero," Bellini's "Beatrice di Tenda," Verdi's "Giovanna d'Arco," and Bizet's "Carmen." She is also the singer of choice for many of the world's most respected contemporary composers, and has created starring roles in several world-premiere operas. Among these have been Ela in David Carlson's "Dreamkeepers," the triple role of Dianne Feinstein/ Harvey's Mama/Hooker in Stewart Wallace/Michael Korie's "Harvey Milk," the title role in Wallace/Korie's subsequent opera, "Hopper's Wife," and Gertrude Stein in the
Jonathan Sheffer's setting of Stein's autobiographical novel, "Blood on the Dining Room Floor." Ms. Gondek has sung the lead roles in Bernstein's "A Quiet Place," Bright Sheng's "The Song of Majnun," and has premiered the
music of John Corigliano, David Diamond, Anthony Davis, Richard Wernick, Morten Lauridson, Stephen Albert, Ricky Ian Gordon, and Steven Sacco, among many others.

She has sung as soloist with over seventy major symphony orchestras, with works including Mahler's "Symphony No. 4" with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Andre Previn, Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" and "Symphony No. 9" with the San Francisco Symphony under Herbert Blomstedt, Mozart's "Exsultate, jubilate" with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Armin Jordan, Handel's "L'Allegro" with Nichoas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Wagner's "Wesendonck Lieder" and Berg's "Sieben Frьhe Lieder" with the Rochester Philharmonic and Jerzy Semkow, Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 14" with Gerard Schwarz, Britten's "Les Illuminations" with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Mendelssohn's "Lobgesang" (Symphony No. 2) at Carnegie Hall with the St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra under John Nelson. Some of the world's most celebrated venues and summer festivals have presented Ms. Gondek in recital, including the Grand Theatre Geneve, Teatro La Fenice, Lucerne's Festival Hall, Berlin's National Library, Toronto's Glenn Gould Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston, Sapporo's Kitara Concert Hall, Los Angeles's Ambassador Auditorium, Santa Fe's St. Francis Chapel, and "The Breakers" in Newport, Rhode Island.

Her discography includes "Harvey Milk" on Teldec, Handel's operas "Ottone," "Radamisto," "Giustino," and "Ariodante" (winner of the 1996 "Gramophone" Record of the Year Award) on harmonia mundi, Mozart's "Exsultate,
jubiliate" on Sonoris, "The Yoav Chamber Ensemble" on Orion (winner of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Prize), as well as new recordings of Bright Sheng's "Songs from the Sung Dynasty" with the Hong Kong Philharmonic on
Naxos, and songs of Karol Szymanowski with Dutch pianist Reinild Mees on Channel Classics, both due for relase in 2002-3. Television and film appearnaces include a "Live from the Met" telecast and DGG videodisc recording of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" with the Metropolitan Opera, the BBC documentary "The Making of West Side Story" on the legendary DGG recording with Leonard Bernstein, a Vancouver Symphony trans- Canadian telecast featuring Ms. Gondek and Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and a European telecast of Mahler's "Symphony No 8" with Arpad Joo and the Spanish National Radio and Television Orchestra. In 2001, she made her on-screen feature film debut as The Opera Diva in the ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's film adaptation of Willa Cather's novel "The Song of the Lark."

A native of Pasadena, California, Juliana Gondek began her musical career as a violinist before receiving BM and MM degrees in voice "magna cum laude" from the University of Southern California. She embarked on her singing career after winning back-to-back gold medals in the Geneva and Barcelona International Singing Competitions, as well as the Prix Patek Philippe and "Musical America"'s Young Artist of the Year Award. She was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Prize for her innovative concert series, "The Art of Polish Song." Also a distinguished pedagogue, Ms. Gondek has served as Professor of Voice and Opera Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) since 1997. She has traveled frequently to adjudicate the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and other prominent competitions, to lecture and teach master classes at institutions such as Japan's Pacific Music Festival, the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, the Manhattan School of Music, the University of
Chicago, the USC School of Music, Rice University in Houston, and the University of California at Berkeley, and to serve as consultant to American filmmakers, journalists, and news organizations.