Biography

Soprano Mary Wilson is acknowledged as one of today's most exciting young artists.  Cultivating a wide-ranging career singing chamber music, oratorio and operatic repertoire, her “bright soprano seems to know no terrors, wrapping itself seductively around every phrase.” (Dallas Morning News)  She continues to receive critical acclaim from coast to coast:  “The discovery was Mary Wilson, a fine lyric soprano with focused, lustrous tone and sterling enunciation,” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) “Her fast passages were flawless in intonation and seemingly easy in execution (the mark of a first-rate technique), and “Her feel for the sound and meaning of words was impeccable; her mastery of Handel’s grand leaps and wide-ranging runs was total.” (San Francisco Classical Voice)

During the 2008 – 2009 season Ms. Wilson sings Gilda in Rigoletto with the Arizona Opera, debuts with Boston Baroque at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico for Bach Cantata No. 202 and the Handel Gloria, and sings Bach Cantatas No. 51 and No. 191 at the Grand Rapids Bach Festival.  She performs Carmina Burana with the Detroit Symphony for Leonard Slatkin’s inaugural performance as the new Music Director of the Orchestra, Hadyn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Southwest Florida Symphony, Haydn’s Salve Regina and Fajer’s Missa de Los Angeles with Musica Angelica, and Handel’s Messiah with both the Charlotte Symphony and the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  With the Iris Orchestra Ms. Wilson sings Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate and a world premiere song cycle by Ned Rorem entitled Songs Old and New,and with the Kansas City Symphony and Nicholas McGegan she will sing a repeat concert of Mendelssohn Lobgesang and selections from Beethoven’s Leonore of which the Minneapolis Star Tribune said “Mary Wilson stole the scene as the soubrette Marzelline.”  In addition, Ms. Wilson will join the Florida Bach Festival for Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Bach’s Easter Oratorio, and Brahm’s German Requiem, the Los Angeles Master Chorale for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra for Ravel’s Sheherazade, and with the American Bach Soloists she will sing Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and virtuoso Handel duets in celebration of their 20th Anniversary Season. 

Ms. Wilson’s appearances for the 2007-2008 season included debuts with Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, and Florida Bach Festival for Carmina Burana; and the Portland Symphony for Brahms Ein Deutches Requiem and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.  She returned for a program of Mendelssohn and Beethoven to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with Nicholas McGegan, and she sang the Fauré Requiem with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Labadie, Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Bach B-Minor Mass with Los Angeles Master Chorale and Grant Gershon.  Ms. Wilson also sang Queen Isabella in Soler’s Una Cosa Rara at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, for which Saint Louis Post-Dispatch proclaimed that “Silvery-voiced soprano Mary Wilson is a royally ditzy Queen Isabella, with exquisite comic timing and a flawless vocal line.”

The 2006-2007 season included Ms. Wilson’s debuts with Arizona Opera as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro as well as performances with the Cincinnati Symphony in Mozart’s Mass in c-minor with Paavo Järvi, Omaha Symphony for Messiah, the Tucson Symphony for Carmina Burana, and Minnesota’s VocalEssence for Bolcom’s complete Songs of Innocence and Experience.  She returned twice to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Carmina Burana with Leonard Slatkin at the Hollywood Bowl, and again for an all-Bach program directed by Bernard Labadie, later broadcast on NPR’s “Performance Today”.  She also returned to both the Dayton Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony for Carmina Burana, joined the Columbus Symphony Orchestra for Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, the American Bach Soloists for Handel, Bach and Vivaldi cantatas, the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir for Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and the Delaware Symphony for Handel’s Silete venti and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. 

In the 2005-2006 season Ms. Wilson made her debuts with Tulsa Opera as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and with the Minnesota Opera as La Colorature in the North American premiere of Laurent Petitgirard’s Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man.  Opera News heralded her performances, stating she “was a fabulous Zerbinetta… her bright, beautiful tone never faltered, and everything was wrapped in effortless suavity.”  She was the soloist for Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Virginia Symphony, Mozart’s Mass in c-minor with Nicholas McGegan with both the St. Louis Symphony and Kansas City Symphony, Brahms’ Requiem with the Quad Cities Symphony, and offered an encore program of Handel cantatas with American Bach Soloists.

In the 2004-2005 season Ms. Wilson made her debut with Boston Lyric Opera in a reprise of her critically-acclaimed role of the Controllerin Dove’s Flight, and had her debut with the Berkshire Opera Company in the role of Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo.  She returned to Dayton Opera for Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and to Opera Theatre of St. Louis for Penelope in Britten’s Glorianna.  Ms. Wilson also made her debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for performances of Mozart’s Mass in c-minor with Nicholas McGegan.  She sang Carmina Burana with the Los Angeles Master Choral, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Symphony Orchestras of both Jacksonville and the Quad-Cities, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Canteloube Songs of the Auvergne with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and Messiah with both Duke Chapel and the San Antonio Symphony. 

In the 2003-2004 season, Ms. Wilson sang a special program of virtuosic Handel cantatas with American Bach Soloists, Brahms’ Requiem with both the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and with St. Olaf College, conducted by Helmut Rilling, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Chattanooga Symphony, Fauré Requiem and Haydn Lord Nelson Mass at Carnegie Hall, Mozart Requiem with Traverse City Symphony, Bach St. Matthew with the Bach Society of St. Louis, a gala New Year’s Eve concert with the Dayton Philharmonic, Carmina Burana with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and performances of Messiah with the American Bach Soloists, Baltimore Handel Choir and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. 

She recently created the role of Grand Duchess Christina in the world premiere performances of Philip Glass’ Galileo Galilei in both Chicago and New York, where Opera News lauded Ms. Wilson’s talent, saying “surely Glass intends for all of his singers to reflect the vocal lines as naturally as she does.”  Ms. Wilson created the role of the Controller in the North American premiere performances of Dove’s Flight at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.  She sang her first Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte with Dayton Opera and the Goddess Diana in Rameau’s Hippolytus and Aricia at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. 

Ms. Wilson was a 1999 National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, awarded the Adams Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and is the recipient of a career grant from Opera Theatre of St. Louis' prestigious Richard Gaddes Fund for Opera Singers.  She was named a 2004 “Emerging Artist” by Symphony Magazine, the publication’s first-ever compilation of up-and-coming classical soloists.  Ms. Wilson holds performance degrees from St. Olaf College and Washington University in St. Louis and currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee.

last updated: October 2008