Barbara Rearick - mezzo-soprano
Barbara Rearick is a performer of great versatility and sensitivity whose wide repertoire embraces opera, oratorio, Lieder and popular American Song.
Her gift for interpretation has resulted in her being chosen for a number of important premieres including the orchestral version of Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies arranged by Colin Matthews with Steuart Bedford conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival; A History of the Thé Dansant, a song cycle written for her by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett; Toward a Time of Renewal by Joelle Wallach at Carnegie Hall, People you dreams by Jonathan Lloyd which she performed with the Britten-Pears Ensemble at the Aldeburgh Festival, the Wigmore Hall and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and The Mary Shelley Opera by Allan Jaffe, creating the title role in New York for the Parabola Arts Foundation. She gave the US premiere of Nicholas Maw’s Nocturne with the American Symphony Orchestra, took part in the world premiere of the complete version of Mendelssohn's Grosse festmusik zum Duererfest with Amor Artis Orchestra, and sung the roles of Miriam, Ruth and the Witch of Endor for the world premiere recording of Kurt Weill’s The Eternal Road under Gerard Schwarz with the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
In the U.S. she has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Recital Hall and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and in October 2008 she made her debut at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre in Bach’s St John Passion with Musica Sacra. Her many performances of Handel’s Messiah include Carnegie Hall with Musica Sacra, for the Northwest Bach Festival under Gunther Schuller and with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Baltimore, Houston and Monterey Symphony Orchestras. Other engagements include Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Utah Symphony; Britten’s Spring Symphony with the Santa Rosa and Nashville Symphonies; Vivaldi’s Gloria and Bach’s Magnificat with the Houston Symphony; Haydn’s Paukenmesse and Bach’s Mass in B minor and Magnificat with Voices of Ascension; Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio at the Northwest Bach Festival, Mozart’s Great Mass and the Bach’s Mass in B minor with Syracuse Symphony; Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 and Prokofiev's The Ugly Duckling with the Baltimore Symphony; and Copland's Old American Songs with Wheeling Symphony.
As a specialist in the music of Benjamin Britten, the American mezzo made her British debut at the Aldeburgh Festival as Britten's Lucretia in 1987 and has since performed in the U.K. with the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square under Harry Bicket, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, and the London Bach Orchestra. In 1995 she sung for the first time with the HaIIé Orchestra performing songs by Jerome Kern, returning for Handel's Dixit Dominus and Bach's Magnificat under Nicholas McGegan, and songs by Richard Rodgers for the HaIIé Proms.
As a recitalist she has worked with Martin Katz, Dale Dietert and Martin Jones, with whom she performed songs by Percy Grainger in the inaugural Festival at the Nimbus Arts Centre in Wales in 1995. She has performed at New York’s Symphony Space in their ‘Wall to Wall Debussy and Ravel’, and she has given recitals with the composer and pianist Sir Richard Rodney Bennett in many parts of Great Britain including the Wigmore Hall, and in the USA. She has appeared as recitalist at British Festivals including the Aldeburgh, Buxton, Chester, Norwich, Ryedale and Spitalfields Festivals, at the AerFi Killaloe Festival in Ireland.
Operatic roles include Lucretia in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at Aldeburgh and at Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro; Meg Page in Verdi's Falstaff with Chautauqua Opera and with the Brookly Philharmonic under Robert Spano; the Mother in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors and Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium with New York's Center for Contemporary Opera: Annina in Verdi's La Traviata with the New York City Opera; the Cook in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol with Kansas City Symphony under Anne Manson; Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with Harrisburg Opera and Maddelena Rigoletto with the Spokane Symphony.
With the Britten-Pears Ensemble she performed throughout Great Britain and in the USA, recorded works by Jolivet and Frank Martin for ASV, and given regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. She has performed the Schoenberg arrangement of Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen with the Britten-Pears Ensemble at Snape Concert Hall, and with the Richardson Chamber Players in Princeton. She has collaborated with many chamber ensembles including the New York Chamber Ensemble and the New York New Music Ensemble. She has toured with the Mark Morris Dance Group performing Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer.
Barbara Rearick was born in Pennsylvania and studied at the Manhattan School of Music. She is currently a voice professor at Princeton University.
Engagements in 2009/10 include Messiah with the Memphis Symphony, Beethoven 9 with the Colorado and Syracuse Symphonies and De Falla’s El Amor Brujo and arias from Carmen with the Hallé Orchestra.