| Biography | Christine Goerke (born 1969) is a Grammy Award winning American dramatic soprano who has performed with many of the world's best opera companies, orchestras, and musical ensembles.
Goerke was born in 1969 in the state of New York. She grew up in Medford, New York where she attended Tremont Elementary School, Oregon Avenue Middle School, and Patchogue-Medford High School. Following high school, Goerke attended SUNY Fredonia for one semester in the fall of 1986 as a music education major with a concentration in clarinet. During her time there Goerke became increasingly more interested in vocal music and ultimately decided to pursue a degree in vocal performance. In 1989, Goerke entered the undergraduate music program at SUNY Stony Brook from which she graduated in the spring of 1994 with a degree in voice. Goerke went on to become a member of the Metropolitan Opera's Young Artist Program from 19941997.
Goerke began her career singing minor roles at the Metropolitan Opera as part of the company's Young Artist Program. She appeared in numerous operas including the roles of the First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida, and the Ships' Doctor/Space Twin in Philip Glass' The Voyage. In the 1997/98 season, Goerke sang her first major role at the Metropolitan Opera, Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni.[2]
In 1997, Goerke landed her first major role outside of the Met in the title role of Iphigénie en Tauride with Glimmerglass Opera. She went on to perform the same role that year with the New York City Opera.[3]
Since then Goerke has performed in lead roles with such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Australia, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Théâtre du Châtelet, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's yearly opera, and Opéra National de Paris to name just a few.
In 2013 Goerke performed the role of the Dyer's Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera to wide critical acclaim, after which she was offered the role of Brünnhilde in the Met's 2018/19 production of the Ring Cycle.
She has also appeared at many notable music festivals including the Tanglewood Festival, Le Festival de Lanaudière, the Hollywood Bowl, the Mostly Mozart Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto among others. On the concert platform, Goerke has appeared with a number of the world's leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Sydney Symphony, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Saito Kinen Orchestra of Japan, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to name a few.
Goerke also regularly gives recitals and has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, New York's Morgan Library, several Universities, and Lincoln Center among others.
Goerke has sung with some of the world's finest conductors including James Conlon, Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Claus Peter Flor, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the late Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Patrick Summers, Jeffery Tate, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Edo de Waart.
Goerke has been the recipient of numerous awards and has won several music competitions. She won the Robert Jacobson Study Grant in 1994, an ARIA award and a George London Award in 1996, and a Richard Tucker Career Grant in 1997.[8] In 2001, Goerke was awarded the prestigious Richard Tucker Award. She has also been honored by the Lotte Lehmann Foundation[2] Goerke is featured on two Grammy Award winning CDs: the 1999 recording of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra and the 2003 recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.[3] She was a recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Awards from Stony Brook University.
Goerke, together with here husband and two daughters, have been residents of Teaneck, New Jersey.
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