Nicole Cabell
(born October 17, 1977 in Panorama City, California) is an American opera singer. She is presently best known as the 2005 winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. [1]
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NICOLE CABELL TICKETS
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Early years
Cabell's grandfather,
Luther Lanier, was the first
African American Chief in the Sheriff's Department in Los Angeles.
[2] She is of
African American, Korean and
Caucasian ancestry, and was brought up in the California beach town of
Ventura.
[3] As a child, she did not listen to classical music, but she did play the flute in her junior high school band.
She and a classmate used to play basketball together and would "imitate opera singers".
Her mother encouraged her to join the school choir. She tried out for a school musical and was a success.
At the age of 15, Cabell began to notice that "People obviously can hear something, even if I can't," she said. "That's sort of how it's been: I've been walking through doors as they've been presented to me".
She had three years of private singing lessons in high school with teacher Linda J. Brice (MM, Indiana University)
and vocal coach Vincent Sorisio [BM, Indiana University School of Music, MM, California State University, Northridge]. At Eastman Nicole studied(with
John Maloy). She then entered the
Juilliard School but was only there for a very short time, as she had been asked to join the
Lyric Opera Center for American Artists at the
Lyric Opera of Chicago. She stayed there for 3 years, during which time the then Center's director,
Richard Pearlman, famous soprano and Director of Vocal Studies
Gianna Rolandi and opera legend
Marilyn Horne were her mentors. She still studies with Rolandi, who is the present director of the newly renamed Ryan Opera Center.
Repertoire
Cabell's repertoire includes Pamina (
Die Zauberflöte
), Juliette (
Roméo et Juliette
), Adina (
L'elisir d'amore
), The Vixen (
The Cunning Little Vixen
), Musetta (
La bohème
), Lauretta and La Ciesca (
Gianni Schicchi
), Clara (
Porgy and Bess
), La Princesse in
Ravel's
L'enfant et les sortilèges
, La Femme in
Poulenc's
La voix humaine
, Miss Jessel in
The Turn of the Screw
and Arsamenes in
Xerxes
. She has recently added the role of Ilia in
Mozart's
Idomeneo
.
Her concert repertoire includes
Mahler's
Symphonies No. 2
and
4
,
Poulenc's
Gloria
,
Orff's
Carmina Burana
,
Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9
,
Tippett's
A Child of Our Time
,
André Previn's
Honey and Rue
and
Henryk Górecki's
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
.
Nicole Cabell has collaborated with major conductors such as
Sir Andrew Davis,
James Conlon,
Daniel Barenboim,
Antonio Pappano,
André Previn and Sir
Raymond Leppard.
In 2007, she gave her first solo recital at
St John's Smith Square in London, sang the title role in Donizetti's
Imelda de' Lambertazzi
at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Musetta in
La bohème
in
Munich, during the
Santa Fe Opera's summer festival season, at the
Washington National Opera, and at the
Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Debuts
She made her London début on August 2, 2006 at
The Proms, singing
Benjamin Britten's
Les Illuminations
, with Sir Andrew Davis conducting the
BBC Symphony Orchestra. She made her
Royal Opera House début at the
Barbican as Princesse Eudoxie in a concert performance of
Halévy's
La Juive
, on September 19, 2006, conducted by
Daniel Oren. She performed as Adina in
L'elisir d'amore
in
Montpellier. She was due to make her debut at the
Deutsche Oper in Berlin in mid-December 2006, but due to the last-minute indisposition of soprano
Angela Gheorghiu, Cabell was asked to step in and made her debut somewhat earlier as Juliette in Gounod's
Roméo et Juliette
on December 7, 2006, alongside
Neil Shicoff. She had previously sung the role at the
Spoleto Festival USA in May 2006. Cabell made her debut with the
Metropolitan Opera on December 22, 2008, singing the role of Pamina in
The Magic Flute.
Recordings
Nicole Cabell is signed to a recording contract with
Decca. Her first solo recital album,
Soprano
, is of arias in French, Italian and English. It was released in 2007.
She will sing the title role in the recording of
Donizetti's
Imelda de' Lambertazzi
for
Opera Rara, conducted by
Mark Elder with the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has also recorded Musetta in
Puccini's
La Bohème
for
Deutsche Grammophon, alongside
Anna Netrebko and
Rolando Villazon with the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Bertrand de Billy.
Her first recording, released in 2006, was of
Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess
, conducted by
John Mauceri.
Awards
- Soprano
, Cabell's first solo recital album was awarded:
- * The Georg Solti Prize Orphée d’Or 2007
by the Académie du Disque Lyrique for a promising recording career. [4] and
- *The Gramophone
Magazine's Editor's Choice May 2007 [5]
References
- Performer's Profile: Nicole Cabell
- About Nicole
- Finding Her Voice: Emerging 'Diva' Nicole Cabell Lends Her Talents To Madison Opera
- Orphée d'Or
- Editor's Choice