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“Nafziger has it all: a superb natural voice, excellent training, profound sensitivity and intelligence,” sums up the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, adding she is “a real talent to follow” who is “blessed with a naturally beautifully voice.” Others describe her instrument as “radiant and clear” (Edmonton Journal), “seraphic” (Calgary Herald), “sparkling and vivid” (Boston Herald), and “delightful” (Gramophone). With such accolades it is no wonder that this Canadian soprano has established herself as a premier coloratura with impressive engagements to her credit, among them her debut at Tanglewood as Nanetta in Falstaff under Seiji Ozawa, later broadcast on NPR.
This season Nafziger sings Fauré’s Requiem with Voices of Ascension, while during 2008/09 she made two appearances with the Houston Symphony - in Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat respectively, and sang an evening of arias with the New Jersey Symphony. She also took part in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Huntsville Symphony, Nielsen’s Hymnus Amoris at Winter Park Bach Festival, Messiah with Peniel Concert Choir at Avery Fisher Hall and Handel’s Esther with the Amor Artis orchestra.
During the 2007/08 season, Nafziger sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Vancouver Symphony, appeared with the Winnipeg Symphony in Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, and performed Messiah with the Monterey Symphony under Christoph Campestrini. Her Kennedy Center debut later in the season with John Adam’s El Niño and the Choral Arts Society of Washington showcased her strong affinity for contemporary music as does the North American premiere of Beat Furrer’s Invocation #6 with the Argento Ensemble at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York. A regular guest of the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, FL, she returned to sing Haydn’s Creation and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and returned to Carnegie Hall to sing John Rutter’s Requiem.
The 2006/07 season brought a return to the New York City Opera as Frasquita and Juliete in Die tote Stadt. She was also heard in Messiah with both the National Philharmonic Orchestra (MD) and the Pensacola Symphony, Bach’s St. John Passion with Winter Park Bach Festival, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem at the Shenadoah Valley Bach Festival, and returned to Carnegie Hall to sing Fauré’s Requiem and Schubert’s Mass in G. She took part in the orchestral premiere of Larry Nelson’s Seven Clay Songs with Orchestra 2001 in Philadelphia, the song version of which she had recorded on Albany Records and premiered in 2004. She also recorded Scott Wheeler’s opera The Contruction of Boston on the Naxos label.
In 2005, Nafziger joined the roster of New York City Opera in the role of Corinna (cover, Il Viaggio a Reims), and sang the title role in Pasatieri’s opera La Divina with Opera Company of Brooklyn. Other engagements included Messiah and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, Faure’s Requiem with Voices of Ascension (NYC), Elijah with the Winter Park Bach Festival (FL), Les Noces at Trinity Church Wall Street (NYC) and Carmina Burana with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Her summer engagements for 2006 included the premiere of Kieren MacMillan’s Drunken Moon, and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and B Minor Mass with the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival (VA).
Among other highlights figure performances with the Buffalo Philharmonic, National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, El Paso Opera, and the symphonies of Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Nova Scotia, Kitchener-Waterloo, Windsor, and the Tafelmusik Chamber Orchestra, among others.
In addition to the above mentioned recordings, Nafziger can be heard on the Naxos label in Lully’s Ballet Music for the Sun King with the Aradia Ensemble, the Telarc label as Die Erste Elfe in Strauss’ Die Agyptische Helena with the American Symphony Orchestra. Later this year a new release on the ERM Media label will feature her in the premiere of Boaz Tarsi’s Concerto for Soprano and Orchestra, with the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra.
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