Profile
Clara Rottsolk
“Pure and shining” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) soprano Clara Rottsolk has been lauded by The New York Times for her “clear, appealing voice and expressive conviction” and by The Philadelphia Inquirer for the “opulent tone [with which] every phrase has such a communicative emotional presence.” In a repertoire extending from the Renaissance to the contemporary, her solo appearances with orchestras and chamber ensembles have taken her across the United States, the Middle East, Japan and South America. She specializes in historically informed performance practice, singing with ensembles including American Bach Soloists, Tempesta di Mare, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Les Délices, Pacific MusicWorks, St. Thomas Church 5th Avenue, Virginia Symphony, Atlanta Baroque, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Piffaro—The Renaissance Wind Band, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Trinity Wall Street Choir, Seraphic Fire, New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, ARTEK, and the Masterwork Chorus under the direction of conductors including Joshua Rifkin, Bruno Weil, Paul Goodwin, Jeffrey Thomas, Andrew Megill, John Scott, David Effron, and Daniel Hyde.
The Soprano joins Les Délices for several tours of French Baroque programs in Texas, the Northwest, and the Northeast, The American Classical Orchestra for Mozart’s Great Mass at Lincoln Center, Bach Collegium San Diego for Handel’s Messiah, as well as the role of Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orphée in the 2017-2018 season. She will return to St. Thomas Church 5th Avenue for Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, and to the Colorado Bach Ensemble for Bach’s B Minor Mass. During the 2016-2017 season Ms. Rottsolk joined Bucks County Choral Society for performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Sametz’s Child’s Requiem, Bach Festival Society of Winter Park for Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, San Francisco Early Music Society for programs alongside Archetti Baroque Strings and ARTEK, New Mexico Symphonic Chorus for performances of Messiah, and Pro Musica Rara for Bach Cantatas. She performed with Peter Conte at the Longwood Gardens for Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder and returned to the Colorado Bach Ensemble for Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion and to Cleveland with Les Délices.
Highlights of her 2015-2016 season include debuts as Eurydice in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice with Opera Grand Rapids and as Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo with the Carmel Bach Festival, as well as concerts of Bach’s Easter and Ascension Oratorios with American Bach Soloists, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St. John Passion with Colorado Bach Ensemble, Handel’s Messiah with Spire Ensemble, recitals of 19th and 20th century mélodies with Byron Schenkman, and a new staged biographic exploration of Torquato Tasso with ARTEK.
She has performed at the Carmel Bach Festival, Indianapolis Early Music Festival, Berkeley Early Music Festival, Philadelphia Bach Festival, Whidbey Island Music Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, and the Festival de Música Barroca de Barichara (Colombia) as well as on myriad concert series across the country. In collaboration with pianists Sylvia Berry and Byron Schenkman, and guitarist-lutenist Daniel Swenberg, Ms. Rottsolk has given recitals of song from the 17th to 21st centuries in venues including the Goethe-Institut Boston, Town Hall Seattle, St. Mark’s Church Philadelphia, and Swarthmore College. Among her stage roles are Eurydice (Orphée et Eurydice), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Ilia (Idomeneo), Micaëla (Carmen), Semele (Semele), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Arminda (La finta giardiniera), Johanna (Sweeney Todd), and Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief).
Her recordings are Myths and Allegories, French Baroque cantatas with Les Délices and “supple and stylish… and unflaggingly attractive” (Gramophone Magazine) Scarlatti Cantatas with Tempesta di Mare on the Chandos-Chaconne label. Due out soon are a recording of new compositions by Rachel Matthews, including three songs set to Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry, as well as Monteverdi Madrigals with ARTEK.