The only artist to receive the International Walter W. Naumburg Award twice, as a soloist and as a chamber musician, soprano Lucy Shelton has performed repertoire from Bach to Boulez in major recital, chamber and orchestral venues throughout the world.
Highly acclaimed as an interpreter of new music, Ms. Shelton continues to bring new audiences into the sound world of new works, often composed for her. Notable among numerous world premieres are Elliott Carter's Of Challenge and Of Love and his Tempo e Tempi; Oliver Knussen's Whitman Settings; Stephen Albert's Flower of the Mountain; Joseph Schwantner's Sparrows and his Two Poems of Agueda Pizarro and Magabunda; Alexander Goehr's Sing, Ariel and The Mouse Metamorphosed Into a Maid; David Del Tredici's Quaint Events; Poul Ruder's The Bells; Gerard Grisey's L'Icone Paradoxiale; Ned Rorem's Schuyller Songs; Sally Beamish's Monster; James Yannatos' Trinity Mass; Lewis Spratlan's Of Time and the Seasons; and Rob Zuidam's Johanna's Lament.
Since her return to the USA from England in 1997, Ms. Shelton has had five recordings released on Deutsche Grammophon and KOCH International with repertoire of Carter, Stravinsky, Crawford Seeger, and Messiaen. Five additional CD's are in the works, with repertoire of Del Tredici, Rands, Adolphe, Kim, and Carter. She also has recordings on Bridge Records, Unicorn-Kanchana and Virgin Classics with music of Goehr, Knussen, and Schoenberg.
Ms. Shelton made her BBC Proms debut in Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero and her Vienna and Berlin debuts singing Kurtag's The Sayings of Peter Bornemissza with Andras Schiff. Among notable conductors with whom Shelton has worked are Barenboim, Boulez, De Leeuw, Knussen, Metzmacher, Nott, Oetvos, Rattle, Rilling, Rostropovich, Salonen, Slatkin, and Wolff.
A native Californian, Ms. Shelton's musical training began early with the study of both piano and flute. After graduating from Pomona College she pursued singing at the New England Conservatory and at the Aspen Music School where she studied with Jan de Gaetani. Shelton has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, and the Eastman School. She is currently on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center and coaches privately at her studio in New York City.
"In the forefront was Lucy Shelton, a new-music diva if there ever was one, performing with fire, sensitivity, astounding surety of pitch, and what seemed like love abounding." (The Boston Globe, May 2001)