Barbara Rearick - mezzo-soprano
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA "Barbara Rearick was an inspired soloist. Judiciously amplified, the mezzo-soprano brought dignity, notable clarity and expressive commitment to the music without ever crossing the line to melodrama." (Turnage/Twice Through the Heart) Chicago Classical Review 2009
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA "I was held as much by the sensitive, lyrical, rather Bergian vocal writing and often translucent scoring as I was by American mezzo-soprano Barbara Rearick's intensely committed negotiation of the tricky solo part; every word registered clearly." (Turnage/Twice Through the Heart) Chicago Tribune 2009
BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC “Barbara Rearick whose smooth, soft, warm voice had an unforced vibrancy and wrapped itself very naturally around the melismatic phrases.” Buffalo News 2000
CHESTER SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL “Her voice has a haunting quality which lends itself beautifully to romantic classics…Barbara Rearick is an exceptional artist.” Manchester Evening News 1999
MANCHESTER CAMERATA “The highlight of the performance was Barbara Rearick’s delivery of Old American Songs, which she sang with drama, wit and expression.” Manchester Evening News 1999
LIEDER EINES FAHRENDEN GESELLEN “What a performance mezzo-soprano Barbara Rearick gave us: tender, richly detailed, all involving. Her vocal production was always completely even from top to bottom, always warm of tone and bell-like of clarity.” Classical New Jersey 1998
QUATRE SONNETS A RONSARD “This is delightful music to which the mezzo soprano Barbara Rearick brings such charm and finesse that I replayed it immediately”
Gramophone 1998
AMERICAN SYMPHONY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA “…in the American premiere of Nicholas Maw’s “Nocturne” Ms Rearick met the challenges of the music skilfully…she was able to change the vocal color to suit the text to nice effect.”
Taconic Newspapers 1997
“Her distinctive voice has just enough metal to cut the orchestra, and the drama in her interpretations rises from a resonance in her own nature” Daily Freeman 1997
NORWICH FESTIVAL “Miss Rearick’s diction is superb, her sustaining and finishing of phrase and line an insistent exhilaration to the listener.”
Eastern Daily Press 1995
HALLE PROMS “Barbara Rearick was all heart and at her best in Kern’s beautiful The Song is You.” Manchester Evening News 1995
SNAPE PROMS “A sublime evening of American music was enjoyed courtesy of pianist Richard Rodney Bennett and mezzo soprano Barbara Rearick. Rearick sparkled, equally at home with the playful Amour, as she was with the marvellous Charles Ives-arranged spiritual In the Morning.” East Anglian Daily Press 1994
NORWICH FESTIVAL “Take a pretty girl with a gorgeous voice, genuine vocal imagination and a real desire to communicate, pick a programme which combines old favourites with the spice of the new, and you end up with a lunchtime concert which had the public calling for encores.” Easter Daily Press 1992
MESSIAH “Highlight was the appearance of American mezzo soprano Barbara Rearick…she displayed a ravishing tone of magical sensitivity, and painted light and shade onto a canvas of vocal tone breathtaking in its communion between interpreter and composer.” Eastern Daily Press 1990
ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL “Barbara Rearick was a Lucretia of tonal beauty and fascinating tragic persona.” Opera News 1998
ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL “…she has a fine mezzo voice, a lovely awareness of words, and an equally lovely stage presence and composure” The Sunday Telegraph 1987