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The American coloratura soprano and voice teacher, Judy Berry, studied at Swarthmore College in , Pennsylvania; and received her Master of Music degree in Opera from Binghamton University in conjunction with Tri-Cities Opera (TCO) in Binghamton, New York. She has garnered top honors in many major vocal competitions, including the Musicians’ Emergency Fund, the Liederkranz Foundation, New Jersey State Opera, Opera/Columbus, New York Grand Opera, Queens Opera, Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts, as well as the coveted First Place awards in the Enrico Caruso Voice Competition, USA (1992) and the Baltimore Opera Vocal Competition (1989).
Judy Berry's many roles with Tri-Cities Opera include Viloletta in La Traviata, Nedda in I Pagliacci, Gilda in Rigoletto, Juliette in Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Queen of the Night in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Mimi in La Boheme, Adina in L'elisir d'amore, as well as the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor, Lakmé and Madama Butterfly. In the Peter Sellars World Premiere production of John Adams’ Nixon in China she sang the roles of Madame Mao and Pat Nixon with Houston Grand Opera (October 1987), and in subsequent performances in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, the Edinburgh Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Los Angeles Music Center, and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Before launching her successful European career, she performed on the stages of the New York City Opera, Baltimore Opera, Knoxville Opera, Mississippi Opera, Virginia Opera, L’Opera Francais, Pittsburgh Opera Theater, Ithaca Opera Association, Berkshire Opera Festival. Perth Festival in Australia, Teatro de la Opera in Puerto Rico, and Edmonton Opera in Canada.
Judy Berry made her European debut with the Oper Leipzig in Germany, and immediately became a much sought after artist abroad. Since the 1993-1994 season, she held a “Fest” Engagement with the Wuppertal Opera where she performed many, if not most, of the major roles in her “Fach”, including Lulu in Alban Berg's Lulu, Marguerite in C. Gounod's Faust, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Giulietta in I Capuletti e I Montecchi, as well as the title role in The Ballad of Baby Doe. With a repertoire of over fifty roles in opera, operetta and musical theatre she is a much desired guest artist, having graced the stages of Mannheim, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Nürnberg, Wiesbaden, Dortmund, Bremen, Münster, Regensburg, Osnabrück, Mainz, Coburg, Kiel, Flensburg, Jena, Eutin. Additonal roles: Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Blondchen in W.A. Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail.
Equally at home on the concert stage and in the realm of modern music, Judy Berry has performed numerous 20th century works, including Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza, Stefan Heucke’s Gilgamesch, Henze’s König Hirsch, Igor Stravinsky's Les noces, Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano, and Samuel Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915. In concert in New York City, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and in Central Park.
Judy Berry has recorded on the WSW and Orfeo labels and is the recipient of a 2014 Heart of the Arts Award from the Broome County Arts Council and a 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation in honor of her artistic accomplishment. |
