Biography
Heidi Grant Murphy emerged in the early 1990s as a powerful and promising American soprano. Her vocal training began at Western Washington University before she pursued graduate studies at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington. During that period she competed in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; upon winning, she departed Bloomington to join the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Development Program.
Her Met debut occurred in 1989, when she appeared in Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten. Subsequent Met portrayals have included Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff, Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, and Sister Constance in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. She returns regularly to the Salzburg Festival.
Outside the Met she has performed at Frankfurt Opera, Netherlands Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, as well as with leading American orchestras. She created the soprano part in the world premiere of David del Tredici’s The Spider and the Fly under Kurt Masur with the New York Philharmonic and sang Saariaho’s Château de l’âme with Kent Nagano and the Hallé Orchestra.
A dedicated recitalist and recording artist, Murphy has appeared on Deutsche Grammophon in The Marriage of Figaro and Parsifal and on Telarc in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and Haydn’s The Creation. She later became an exclusive artist for Arabesque Records, for which she recorded a recital disc with her husband, Metropolitan Opera conductor Kevin Murphy, and two Bach wedding cantatas.
Her Met debut occurred in 1989, when she appeared in Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten. Subsequent Met portrayals have included Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff, Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, and Sister Constance in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. She returns regularly to the Salzburg Festival.
Outside the Met she has performed at Frankfurt Opera, Netherlands Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, as well as with leading American orchestras. She created the soprano part in the world premiere of David del Tredici’s The Spider and the Fly under Kurt Masur with the New York Philharmonic and sang Saariaho’s Château de l’âme with Kent Nagano and the Hallé Orchestra.
A dedicated recitalist and recording artist, Murphy has appeared on Deutsche Grammophon in The Marriage of Figaro and Parsifal and on Telarc in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and Haydn’s The Creation. She later became an exclusive artist for Arabesque Records, for which she recorded a recital disc with her husband, Metropolitan Opera conductor Kevin Murphy, and two Bach wedding cantatas.
Albums
