Joyce Castle Mezzo-Soprano Professor of Voice
The 2009-2010 season will be a very special season for Joyce Castle. 2010 marks her 40th year in the opera world and to do this William Bolcom, the Pulitizer Prize winning American composer, is writing a chamber piece for her to be premiered in New York in the fall of 2010.
Castle performed in the Gala concert opening the David H. Koch Theater on November 5, 2009. Since her debut with New York City Opera in 1983, she has sung over 160 performances of leading roles to great acceaim: Augusta in The Ballad of Baby Doe, the Old Prioress in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Claire in The Visit of the Old Lady, the Old Lady in Candide, Mrs. Lovett in Sweeny Todd to mention a few. She has sung at the Metropolitan Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and The Witch in Hansel and Gretel.
Miss Castle has performed with the following conductors: James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, David Zinman, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Christian Theielemann, Julius Rudel, and Edo de Waart. With Leonard Bernstein at the piano, she sang the first performance of his work "Arias and Barcarolles."
Castle has been closely associated with other composers. She sang the premiere of Strawberry Fields by Michael Torke at Glimmerglass Opera (her performance was seen on PBS Great Performances Series), Dream of Valentino by Dominick Argento at the Kennedy Center, Where's Dick by Stewart Wallace at Houston Grand Opera and Esther by Hugo Weisgall at New York City Opera.
Her discography includes: Menotti's The Medium, Menotti's The Consul, Bernstein's Grammy-winning recording Candide, Michael Torke's Strawberry Fields, Vocal works of Joseph Fennimore, Vocal works of Stephan Wolpe, and Sondheim and Jake Heggie's Flesh and Stone which features "Statuesque," song cycle written for Miss Castle and commissioned by the University of Kansas.