Hailed as “an artist to treasure” by The New York Times, Susan Graham rose to the highest echelon of international performers within just a few years of her professional debut, mastering an astonishing range of repertoire and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries, from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, which was written especially for her. A familiar face at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, she also maintains a strong international presence at such key venues as Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet, Santa Fe Opera, and the Hollywood Bowl. She won a Grammy Award for her collection of Ives songs, and has also been recognized throughout her career as one of the foremost exponents of French vocal music. Although a native of Texas, she was awarded the French government’s prestigious “Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur,” both for her popularity as a performer in France and in honour of her commitment to French music.
Susan Graham began the 2024-2025 season as Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music in concert at Lincoln Center with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and an all-star cast. She later joins the Boston Symphony Orchestra in concert for a gala honouring Maestro Andris Nelsons. She sings The Marquise of Berkenfield in La fille du regiment in her return to Opéra national de Paris, and sings the Baroness in Vanessa with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Gianandrea Noseda. She later returns to Carnegie Hall with Orchestra of St. Luke’s for A Standing Witness by Richard Danielpour, a work written for her which she premiered in the 2022-2023 season.
Last season, Susan Graham performed her celebrated portrayal of Mrs. Patrick De Rocher in the Metropolitan Opera’s seasoning-opening company premiere of Dead Man Walking, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She was a featured guest performer in nationwide telecast of the 46th annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala in a tribute to her longtime colleague and friend, soprano Renée Fleming. She also debuted with Detroit Opera in Europeras 4. She began the season before with Music from Copland House premiering A Standing Witness. She then sang Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow in Dallas Symphony’s 2022 gala with Fabio Luisi alongside Thomas Hampson. She performed Geneviève in Sir David McVicar’s production Debussy’s of Pelléas and Mélisande at Los Angeles Opera under James Conlon and reprised the role with Santa Fe Opera.
Susan Graham also sang Mrs. Patrick De Rocher in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s company premiere of Dead Man Walking. In concert, she sang Berlioz’s La mort de Cléopâtre and excerpts from Les Troyens with Sir Donald Runnicles and the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin at the Berlin Musikfest and partnered with pianist Malcolm Martineau for recitals of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder in Berkeley’s Cal Performances series and of her Schumann-inspired Frauenliebe und -leben: Variations program in Fort Worth’s Cliburn Concert Series and at New York’s Lincoln Center. Graham joined Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony for Mahler’s Third Symphony at London’s BBC Proms and in Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Lucerne, and Paris. She made her role debut as Humperdinck’s Witch in Hansel and Gretel at LA Opera, hosted “An Evening with Susan Graham” at Dallas’s Meyerson Symphony Center, sang Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with David Robertson and the Sydney Symphony, headlined the Mayshad Foundation’s season-closing gala concert in Marrakech, and returned to Carnegie Hall, first with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and then with Alec Baldwin and Leonard Slatkin for the Manhattan School of Music’s Centennial Gala Concert. To mark the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death, she performed Les nuits d’été with the Houston Symphony and made her New Zealand debut in La mort de Cléopâtre with the New Zealand Symphony under Edo de Waart. Other highlights of recent seasons include starring in Trouble in Tahiti at Lyric Opera of Chicago to honour the Bernstein Centennial, making her title role debut opposite James Morris in Marc Blitzstein’s 1948 opera Regina at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and appearing alongside Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming and a host of other luminaries to celebrate the Metropolitan Opera’s five decades at its Lincoln Center home.
