Yulia Van Doren
Soprano
"A hugely appealing, obviously important talent...Van Doren is startlingly subservient to the music at hand, inhabiting it so completely that she gives the illusion of barely thinking about her voice. With this comes an easygoing magnetism that attracts the ear rather than reaching out to it. Often the greater technical challenges fired her fantasy the most."
— David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer
Recognized by Opera as “A star-to-be” following her Lincoln Center debut, young Russian-American soprano Yulia Van Doren’s debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was acclaimed as a “revelation… a ravishing lyric voice and an ease with vocal ornamentation that turned her into an enchanted songbird” (Toronto Star). For her last minute step-in with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Plain Dealer praised Van Doren as an artist of “melting poignancy” and added, “To Van Doren, one could easily have listened for hours.” Read more in biography below.
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Biography
A dedicated interpreter of repertoire off the beaten path, Russian-American soprano Yulia Van Doren has thoughtfully cultivated a unique career as one of the foremost concert singers of her generation. Particularly recognized for her work in Baroque repertoire, Ms. Van Doren has been presented as a guest artist by a majority of the premiere North American orchestras and festivals, has the distinction of being the only singer awarded top prizes in all US Bach vocal competitions, and is featured on two Grammy-nominated opera recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival.
Other career highlights include leading roles in a variety of diverse repertoire, including the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Orango with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, directed by Peter Sellars and released on Deutsche Grammophon; the modern revival of Monsigny’s Le roi et le fermier at Opera de Versailles, the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center; Monteverdi concerts in Venice with Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Scarlatti’s rarely-performed opera Tigrane at Opera de Nice; Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the Radio Kamer Filharmonie at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in Macau, marking the first Handel opera performance in the Chinese region; a variety of eclectic 20th-century repertoire as the featured soprano of the 2013 Ojai Music Festival; several world premieres at Carnegie Hall; and nationally-televised performances at the Cartagena International Music Festival with soprano Dawn Upshaw, a cherished career mentor. Ms. Van Doren made her European debut singing the historically-notable Hungarian premiere of Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Passionate about cross-arts collaboration, she has been a frequent soprano soloist for renowned choreographer Mark Morris since 2007, singing many national and international performances with his company including Dido and Aeneas, Acis and Galatea, and Morris’ iconic L’Allegro; and in 2019 Ms. Van Doren became the first opera singer to perform at the Essaoira World Music Festival, one of Africa’s largest music festivals, in a guest appearance with Moroccan Gnawa superstar Hassan Hakmoun.
Born in Moscow, Ms. Van Doren was raised in the United States in a music-filled household in which she and her seven younger siblings were taught by their Russian mezzo-soprano mother and American jazz pianist father. After spending her high school years working full-time in professional musical theater, she switched focus to classical singing and attended New England Conservatory. Her graduate degree from Bard College Conservatory was generously supported by a Soros Fellowship, and postgraduate study in Paris by a Beebe Fellowship. She is an Astral Artist Laureate.