Biography
Alabama native Susanna Phillips has attracted special recognition for a voice of striking beauty and sophistication. In the banner year of 2005, she was the winner of four of the world’s leading vocal competitions – Operalia (both First Place and the Audience Prize), the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the MacAllister Awards and the George London Foundation. She completed the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2007.
The 2008/09 season brings many exciting operatic debuts for Susanna Phillips. She will debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Musetta, as Mozart’s Countess and Donna Anna with the Dallas Opera and the Boston Lyric Opera, respectively, and in a role and house debut as Violetta with Opera Birmingham. Recital appearances include the Vocal Arts Society at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and at Carnegie Hall with the Marilyn Horne Foundation in New York. She will return to her native Alabama to perform Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder with the Huntsville Symphony. She can also be seen in concert with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra performing the Brahms Requiem, and with the Louisiana Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
During the 2007/08 season Susanna Phillips returned to Santa Fe Opera as Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro in a new production by Jonathan Kent. She performed the notoriously difficult role of Elmira in a Tim Albery production of Reinhard Keiser’s The Fortunes of King Croesus in her debut with Minnesota Opera conducted by Harry Bicket to great critical acclaim. She sang another role debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in her first performances with Utah Opera. She also appeared as Musetta in La Bohème at Madison Opera and Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites at Kentucky Opera. Concert engagements included Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Handel's Messiah with the Pacific Symphony, and a return to Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York performing Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem.
Susanna Phillips made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in a new Tim Albery production conducted by William Lacey in the summer of 2006. During the 2006/7 season, she sang Diana in a new Robert Carsen production of Iphigenie en Tauride at Lyric Opera of Chicago opposite Susan Graham. She also performed Juliette in Romeo et Juliette and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at Lyric Opera that season. In the summer of 2007, she returned to Santa Fe Opera as Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, again conducted by Lacey, in a production by James Robinson. She also sang her first performances of the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor in a concert version in her native Huntsville, Alabama.
Her continually expanding concert repertoire has been showcased with many different prestigious organizations. She performed with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic as part of their annual “Composer’s Festival” under Alan Gilbert, and she also sang Beethoven’s Mass in C and Choral Fantasy for her Mostly Mozart Festival debut at Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York under Kent Tritle. She sang Mozart’s Mass in c with the Huntsville Symphony, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Santa Fe Symphony, Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem with the Santa Barbara Symphony, and appeared opposite baritone Wolfgang Holzmair in Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch at New York’s Weill Recital Hall and under the auspices of the Vocal Arts Society of Washington, DC. Other recent concert and oratorio engagements include Carmina Burana, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, the Fauré and Mozart Requiems, and Handel’s Messiah. Ms. Phillips made her Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson and Rob Fisher with the New York Pops.
Ms. Phillips is a winner of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, and was awarded grants from the Santa Fe Opera and the Sullivan Foundation. Additionally, Ms. Phillips was the first prize winner of the American Opera Society Competition and the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago.
