| Biography | Cyndia Sieden (born 10 September 1961) is an American coloratura soprano on the opera and concert stages.
Cyndia Sieden was born in 1961 in California, USA, and received her first vocal instruction there. A significant early milestone in her studies was work with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in master classes in Carmel Valley, CA in 1982. Schwarzkopf then invited Sieden to become her private student, and also to work with her in her master classes at the 1983 Salzburg Mozarteum. Sieden sang in the culminating concert/competition and won first place, which became the catalyst for her first professional engagements. In 1984, she made her European debut in the Ruth Berghaus production of The Barber of Seville (Silvio Varviso conducting) at the Bavarian State Opera; her American debut also took place in 1984, in La Fille du Regiment in Tampa, Florida.
Since then, she has moved among the Baroque, classical, romantic and modern/contemporary repertoire at most of the worlds great opera houses, including Munichs Bavarian State Opera, Pariss Opéra Bastille, Barcelonas Gran Teatre del Liceu, Brussels's La Monnaie, and Londons Royal Opera House and English National Opera, as well as in Beijing and Australia. Her Metropolitan Opera, New York, debut was in the title role of Alban Bergs Lulu, and she returned there in 2008 for the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte. With a great sympathy for the works of Richard Strauss, she often performs Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (Munich, Japan, Vienna), Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (Paris Châtelet) and Aminta in Die schweigsame Frau (Palermo).
On the concert platform Cyndia Sieden has appeared with most major European and North American orchestras; Sieden often sings Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, the oratorios of Handel, Mozart, and Haydn, and works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Gustav Mahler. Among her collaborators have been Christoph Eschenbach, John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, James Levine, Nicolas McGegan, Roger Norrington, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Pinchas Steinberg and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Challenging contemporary roles have been a hallmark of her career, including the high-flying and athletic role of Ariel in the premiere of Thomas Adèss The Tempest at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She will repeat the role at the Frankfurt Opera in 2014. 2011 appearances in contemporary opera include Morton Feldmans monodrama Neither for New York City Opera and Ariadne - Soprano I in Wolfgang Rihms Dionysos at The Netherlands Opera.
Sieden divides her time between homes in Europe and the state of Washington, USA. |