Karin Wolverton
Soprano Karin Wolverton has been described by Opera News as “a young soprano to watch” having “a lovely warm tone, easy agility and winning musicality”. Ms. Wolverton took on the challenging role of Anna Sørensen in the 2011 world premiere of Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize winning opera Silent Night with the Minnesota Opera for which WQXR acclaimed “. . . soprano Karin Wolverton, whose diamond-edged soprano shone in a sublime Act I “Dona Nobis Pacem” during mass, and sliced through the top notes of a second-act aria full of emotional turbulence as she realizes the beauty of her art is no match for the horrors of war.”
Continuing her passionate involvement in new works, Ms. Wolverton will return to Arizona Opera in the 2016-2017 season for the world premiere of Riders of the Purple Sage by Craig Bohmler. Additionally, she will return to Minnesota Opera as Freia in Das Rheingold, the Jacksonville Symphony as the Mother in Hansel and Gretel, and will debut with Opera Santa Barbara as Magda in La rondine.
The 2015-2016 season saw her return to Tulsa Opera as Mimi in La bohème and debuts with Arizona Opera as Micäela in Carmen, the South Dakota Symphony for another La bohème, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Angels & Demons Entertainment as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. Her 2014-2015 season included Fiordiligi in Utah Opera’s Così fan tutte, her debut with Austin Lyric Opera as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Minnesota Orchestra, singing Shepherd on the Rock and Brad Mehldau’s The Book of Hours with the Joya! Concerts Series, and Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Hill House Players.
Previous roles include Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Mimì in La bohème, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, soprano soloist in Dvořák’s Te Deum with the Minnesota Orchestra, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Opera Omaha, and Mimì with Pensacola Opera. A favorite on Minnesota Opera’s main stage and a passionate exponent of its New Works Initiative, Ms. Wolverton regularly participates in workshops shepherding new opera. Other engagements in Minnesota include Musetta in La bohème, the Wood Nymph in Rusalka, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Ines in Donizetti’s rarely performed bel canto masterpiece Maria Padilla, Micaëla in Carmen, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, Praskowia in The Merry Widow, Clotilde in Norma, Moira in the American premiere of Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale, Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor and the Celestial Voice in Verdi’s Don Carlos. For the same company, she has covered the demanding roles of Salome, Rusalka, and Sister Aloysius in Doubt, and sang Mimì for the hugely popular parks concert, Opera under the Stars. Having participated in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s critically acclaimed The Grapes of Wrath, she was invited to reprise her role at Utah Opera and Pittsburgh Opera. In recent years, Ms. Wolverton has also been seen as Micaëla in Carmen with Tulsa Opera, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Micaëla, and Antonia at Des Moines Metro Opera, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Piedmont Opera, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, and Mimì with Teatro Nacional de Managua in Nicaragua and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra.
On the concert stage, Ms. Wolverton made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Minnesota Orchestra in Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3 and has appeared with the Orchestra Seattle and the Saint Cloud Symphony (Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915), Chippewa Valley Symphony (Mahler’s Symphony No. 2), the Phoenix Symphony and the Eugene Symphony (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9), the Discovery Ensemble (Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Five Images after Sappho), New Hampshire Music Festival (Poulenc’s Gloria), Wayzata Symphony Orchestra (Carmina Burana), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Musicians (Handel’s Messiah), the Great Falls Symphony, and the Dayton Philharmonic for its gala performance of Viva Italia!.
