British-born Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts brings a uniquely rich and wide-ranging voice to the concert and recital repertoire for alto and mezzo-soprano. She is particularly acclaimed for her performances of Gustav Mahler’s works.
In May of 2004, as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, Jessye Norman chose Susan Platts from 26 candidates world-wide to be her protégée. With the generous support of Rolex, Susan Platts commissioned a new work for mezzo-soprano and orchestra from the Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich. Under the Watchful Sky comprises of three songs that use ancient Chinese texts from Shi Jing (The Book of Songs), which explore the universal passions and tribulations of human kind.
She has performed at Teatro alla Scala, Teatro di San Carlo, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and with orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, L’Orchestre de Paris, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, American Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony. She has collaborated with many conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Roberto Abbado, Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Keith Lockhart, Jane Glover, Jeffery Kahane, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Helmuth Rilling, Bramwell Tovey, Osmo Vänska, and Pinchus Zuckerman. She has appeared on many distinguished art song series including the Vocal Arts Society at the Kennedy Center, the Ladies Morning Musical Club in Montreal, the “Art of the Song” Series at Lincoln Center and the Frick Museum Series in New York.
Opera includes Third Lady Die Zauberflöte (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Florence Pike Albert Herring (Pacific Opera Victoria/Vancouver Opera) Erda Das Rheingold and Hippolyta A Midsummer Night’s Dream(Pacific Opera Victoria). In conert she sang Schwertleite Die Walküre with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conductor by Vladimir Jurowski, and 3rd Secretary to Chairman Mao Nixon in China with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer at the BBC Proms in London and then at the Berlin Festival.
Susan Platts has recorded Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde for Fontec Records with Gary Bertini conducting the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, a CD of dramatic sacred art songs with pianist Dalton Baldwin, Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Smithsonian Chamber Players and Santa Fe Pro Musica for Dorian Records and Brahms Zwei Gesänge with Steven Dann and Lambert Orkis on the ATMA label. She recently recorded her first solo disc of Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, also on the ATMA label.
“Platts was similarly alive to every musical and expressive nuance, bringing enough dramatic intensity to the Auden setting “Out on the lawn I lie in bed” to put her interpretation in league with that of Dame Janet Baker in her prime.” Britten Spring Symphony/Grant Park Music Festival, Chicago Classical Review
“This is a first recording of the piece…as is the utterly gorgeous orchestral version of the song ‘Musique sur l’eau’. Composed for voice and piano in 1898, Schmitt orchestrated this in 1903, the same year in which his friend and fellow Fauré pupil Ravel was working on his orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade, and the two soundworlds have much in common. Beautifully sung by Susan Platts, it is one of the highlights of this interesting disc.” BBC Music Magazine,
“Her voice is startlingly attractive from top to bottom, with a sure and strong upper register descending like honey to the yeasty depths of a contralto. A voice like this – there are not many – is such a pleasure to hear…radiantly persuasive…” Washington Post
“Susan Platts…was the most consistently satisfying, with a lush, dark tone.” New York Times