About this Artist
NICOLE CABELL (Clara), the 2005 winner of the BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff and a Decca recording artist, is fast becoming one of the most sought-after lyric sopranos of today. Her solo debut album, Soprano, was named Editor’s Choice by Gramophone and has received critical acclaim and several prestigious awards, including the 2007 Georg Solti Orphée d’Or from the French Académie du Disque Lyrique and an ECHO Klassik Award in Germany.
Cabell’s 2008/09 season brought her to the Metropolitan Opera for her much-anticipated house debut in two of her most acclaimed roles: Pamina in The Magic Flute, followed by Adina in L’elisir d’amore. With her home company, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she was heard in a new role: Leïla in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles, as well as at the very beginning of the season in an Opera Concert at Millennium Park conducted by the company’s music director, Sir Andrew Davis. Other opera engagements this season included two role debuts: the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with the Cincinnati Opera and Micaëla in Carmen with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In concert, Cabell was heard in Copenhagen, Prague, Munich, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Ottawa, Indianapolis, and Raleigh. Cabell appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall for Marilyn Horne’s 75th birthday gala concert, as well as in Toronto, Berkeley, and Cincinnati. A more unusual event in the soprano’s season was a series of cabaret concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Future engagements include leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Recent engagements include many exciting debuts, most notably with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Eudoxie in concert performances of La Juive, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall in Poulenc’s Gloria, the Santa Fe Opera as Musetta in La bohème, the Opéra de Montpellier as Adina in L’elisir d’amore, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin as the title role in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Ilia in Idomeneo, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, as well as the release of her first solo CD for Decca, Soprano. Another important recording project was the title role of Donizetti’s Imelda de’ Lambertazzi for Opera Rara, which she also performed in concert in London. Notable concert appearances included Carmina Burana and Honey and Rue with the Oslo Philharmonic and André Previn, an all-Bernstein evening at Harvard with Judith Clurman, Gorecki’s Third Symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, and a return to the Indianapolis Symphony for a concert of opera arias with Mario Venzago. Cabell also appeared in recital in London, Tokyo, Hammond, Los Angeles, and for the opening of the new hall at Mount Vernon, VA.
Cabell made her extremely successful Orchestra Hall debut with the Chicago Symphony in concerts of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with Sir Andrew Davis conducting. She also made her European debut in concerts of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Antonio Pappano and Thomas Hampson; she appeared with the Florida Orchestra in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Florida Orchestra and Stefan Sanderling and in Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 with the Baltimore Symphony.
In concert, she made her debut with the Oregon Symphony in Mahler’s Second Symphony with Carlos Kalmar and repeated Barbarina with the Chicago Symphony and Daniel Barenboim at the Ravinia Festival. Cabell was also heard live on A Prairie Home Companion in a celebration of Ravinia’s 50th season and sang the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Grant Park Festival.
Awards include first place in both the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition and the Women’s Board of Chicago Vocal Competition. Nicole Cabell was a semi-finalist in the 2005 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and earned first place in the American Opera Society competition in Chicago. She is the 2002 winner of the Union League’s Rose M. Grundman Scholarship, and the 2002 Farwell Award with the Woman’s Board of Chicago. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music.