Assistant Professor of Voice Audrey Babcock has sung the role of "Nica" (the Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter) in the Seattle Opera production of Charlie Parker's Yardbird, a contemporary opera by Daniel Schnyder based on the legendary jazz saxophonist. The production opened February 22 and closes March 7.
Babcock, who joined the music faculty in January, is an award-winning mezzo-soprano who has gained recognition for her commanding, powerful performances, most notably in the role of Carmen, which she has performed with companies such as Florentine Opera, Nashville Opera, Florida Grand Opera, New York City Opera, San Antonio Opera, Knoxville Opera, Opera Delaware, Toledo Opera, Anchorage Opera, Dayton Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, and Utah Festival Opera. Widely recognized as a choice singer for new works, Babcock has also performed in numerous contemporary operas and has premiered several new operas for stage, including Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin (NY Premiere - Dicapo Opera), With Blood, With Ink (World Premiere - Fort Worth Opera), La Reina (American Lyric Theater, NY and Prototype Festival), and The Poe Project (American Lyric Theater).
In April, she will sing the East Coast premiere of Intonations: Songs from the VIolins of Hope, a new work by Jake Heggie for mezzo-soprano, violin soloist, and string quartet. Commissioned in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Intonations: Songs from the VIolins of Hope is inspired by the stories of violins with Holocaust histories, told in the book Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour, written by UNC Charlotte musicologist James Grymes.