Soprano Jayne West has performed with many of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (at Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Tanglewood Main Stage and Seiji Ozawa Hall). She has sung under notable conductors Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Trevor Pinnock, Neeme Järvi, Roberto Abbado, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Christopher Hogwood, Jane Glover, Grant Llewellyn and Keith Lockhart. She has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Grant Park Series, Saito Kinen Festival, and with the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels, Belgium), Houston Grand Opera, The New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv, and Boston Lyric Opera. Ms. West is a past finalist of the Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and one of the winners of the Oratorio Society of New York Competition.
Ms. West received her B.M. (Voice) and M.M. (Master’s in Music Teaching) from Oberlin Conservatory and her M.M. (Vocal Performance, magna cum lauda) from Boston Conservatory. She was a Tanglewood Fellow for two years, studying with Phyllis Curtin. She then continued to study with her privately in Boston. Previously, she studied voice with Howard Hatton at Oberlin and Iride Pilla at Boston Conservatory.
Ms. West has performed for many, many years with Emmanuel Music, notabley in their Sunday Cantata Series, Emmanuel Music’s Chamber Series and in Schubert’s Mass in E-Flat, Bach’s B Minor Mass, Handel’s Hercules, Saul, Jephtha, Brockes Passion and Ariodante, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Haydn’s Creation.
Ms. West sang the role of Countess Almaviva in Craig Smith and Peter Sellars’ production of Le Nozze di Figaro in New York, Boston, Barcelona, Paris, and Vienna where it was filmed and broadcast for Great Performances. Ms. West premiered Mark Morris Dance Group’s productions ofL’Allegro, il moderato ed il pensiero and Dido and Aeneas in Brussels, Belgium, “Stephen Foster Songs” in Boston and Virgil Thompson’s Four Saints in Three Acts in Berkeley, CA.
Ms. West has recorded for MusicMasters, Decca/Argo, London Records, Newport Classics, Koch, and Hyperion. She is most recently heard on the postumously released recording “Lorraine at Emmanuel” in duet with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
Ms. West is currently on the faculty of Longy School of Music of Bard College and is the Community Connections Coordinator for Emmanuel Music.