Karen Foster

A top prize winner in the Lauritz Melchoir International Singing Competition in 2014, Karen Foster returned to Europe to sing Gerhilde in Die Walküre with Bayerische Staatsoper, reprised the role in 2014-15, and will sing again this season. Also in 2015-16 she sings in recital at the DiMenna Center in New York. Recent highlights include a re-engagement with Lyric Opera of Chicago for its production of Lohengrin; joining the roster of Arizona Opera for Turandot; singing at the Kennedy Center through the Wagner Society of Washington D.C. in excerpts from Mahler’s Symphony no. 8, Das Klagende Lied, and Die drei Pintos; Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Adelphi Chamber Orchestra; the title role of Turandot with New Rochelle Opera; appearing as guest soloist at the German Embassy in the Immolation Scene from Götterdämmerung, again through Wagner Society of Washington D.C.; Helmwige in Die Walküre with Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf; Leonora in Il trovatore with the Westfield Symphony Orchestra; and a re-engagement with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for its production of Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten.

Equally comfortable in concert, Foster has performed such works as Mendelssohn’s “Lobgesang” Symphony no. 2, Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, and Honneger’s King David with conductor Ford Lallerstedt of the Curtis Institute of Music. She has also performed the Verdi Requiem with the New York Choral Society’s annual Summer Sing, and has given recitals for the Bohemian societies of New York and Texas, her home state.