Lindsay Kesselman

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Hailed by Fanfare Magazine as an “artist of growing reputation for her artistry and intelligence…with a voice of goddess-like splendor” LINDSAY KESSELMAN is a soprano who passionately advocates for contemporary music, actively commissioning and collaborating with a diverse array of composers to create unique, groundbreaking, and dramatically-inspired works for the voice.

This season, Kesselman will be featured on several new recording releases: Chris Cerrone’s The Pieces That Fall to Earth with LA-based ensemble Wild Up (New Amsterdam Records), Mathew Rosenblum’s Falling with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (New Focus Recordings), and Jon Magnussen’s Twinge with HAVEN (Blue Griffin).

Recent and upcoming highlights include a leading role in a new opera by Chris Cerrone, a world premiere performance at the national CBDNA convention in 2019 (John Mackey), a world premiere with the UNCG Wind Symphony in 2019 (D.J. Sparr), Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra, the John Corigliano 80th birthday celebration at National Sawdust (2018), Quixote (Amy Beth Kirsten and Mark DeChiazza) with Peak Performances at Montclair State University (2017), the release of Antique Violences on Blue Griffin in 2017 featuring Songs from the End of the World (John Mackey), a leading role in Louis Andriessen’s opera Theatre of the World with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dutch National Opera (live recording released on Nonesuch Records, 2017), and an international tour of Einstein on the Beach with the Philip Glass Ensemble (2012-2015). This production won the prestigious Laurence Olivier award for Best New Opera Production in 2013.

Kesselman has been the resident soprano of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble for 8 seasons, and in that capacity has performed music by Louis Andriessen, David Biedenbender, Chris Cerrone, John Corigliano, Amy Beth Kirsten, Rufus Reid, Mathew Rosenblum, Joseph Schwantner, D.J. Sparr, David Stock, and Dan Visconti, among others. She has had leading roles in staged productions of Kieren MacMillan's Drunken Moon and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. She will be featured on an upcoming binaural recording of John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man with this ensemble, and will tour to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019 with Kieren MacMillan’s The Gray Cat and the Flounder. During the 2018 season, Kesselman curated a show which was met with acclaim: “…the concert really served as a showcase for Ms. Kesselman’s astounding voice. Her soprano is the picture of perfect intonation and general mastery of vocal technique.” (Pittsburgh in the Round)

Kesselman is currently based in Charlotte, North Carolina and has recent collaborations with several local organizations including: the North Carolina Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, the Winston Salem Symphony, the North Carolina Brass Brand, the Bach Akademie of Charlotte (Scott Allen Jarrett, Artistic Director), at the Bechtler Modern Art Museum (world premiere by composer Ian Dicke), and the premiere of the chamber version of Songs from the Bleeding Pines, a song cycle by David Ludwig.

HAVEN, Kesselman’s trio with Kimberly Cole Luevano, clarinet and Midori Koga, piano (www.haventrio.com) actively commissions and tours throughout North America. They recently released two albums on the Fleur de Son Classics label entitled Bright Angel and Atonement. HAVEN was the recipient of a 2016 Ontario Arts Council Commissioning Grant with composer Kieren MacMillan and a 2015 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant with composer Jon Magnussen.

Other appearances include Orff’s Carmina Burana and Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem with the Akron Symphony Orchestra (Ohio), a holiday concert with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra (Pennsylvania), Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with members of the Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Cleveland Heights Chamber Orchestra, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and James Whitbourn’s Annelies in metro Chicago, and several concerts with Houston’s Camerata Ventapane at the 2nd Annual Baroque Music Festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Kesselman holds degrees in voice performance from Rice University and Michigan State University. She is represented by Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music, and lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband, conductor Christopher James Lees, and son Rowan.