Praised as "the kind of performer who makes it all look easy," Heather Buck has established herself internationally as a consummate singing actress, "combining agile, liquid soprano, a bright, natural stage presence, and the timing of an expert comedienne," (Opera News).
Heather Buck's 2009-10 season includes singing Lulu Baines in Elmer Gantry with Florentine Opera; Adina in L'elisir d'amore with Toledo Opera; the title role in The Ballad of Baby Doe with Intermountain Opera; the title role in the American premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's monodrama Proserpina with Spoleto Festival USA; Gilda in Rigoletto with Nickel City Opera; as soloist in Henry Cowell's Atlantis with American Symphony Orchestra; as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Maria in West Side Story (both semi-staged), and as soloist in a concert titled "Stars Under the Stars," all with Opera Naples; and as featured soloist in an evening of opera highlights with Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. In summer of 2010 she sings Gilda in Rigoletto with Nickel City Opera, and in 2010-11 she rejoins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, reprises her 2007 Spoleto Festival USA role of Angel in Dusapin's Faustus, the Last Night at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and sings Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos in a return to Toledo Opera.
In 2008-09 Heather Buck joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, sang Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte with Florentine Opera, Ännchen in Der Freischütz with Opera Boston, and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Indianapolis Opera. On the concert stage she performed songs by Thomas Larcher and George Crumb for the American Composers' Forum, and Previn's Vocalise for Soprano, Solo Cello and Orchestra at New York's Le Poisson Rouge in celebration of the composer's 80th Birthday.
Recent highlights include her English National Opera debut singing the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, her returns to Opera Birmingham as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and to Arizona Opera as Queen of the Night, her first performances of Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Connecticut Opera, Valencienne in The Merry Widow with Florentine Opera, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Five Images after Sappho with the Utah Symphony, Schubert's Mass in E-flat with North Carolina Symphony, Bach's Magnificat at Duke University, her debut with Central City Opera as La Fée in Cendrillon, and her appearance as Angel in Pascal Dusapin's Faustus, the Last Night with Spoleto Festival USA.
Heather Buck made her New York City Opera debut creating the title role in Charles Wuorinen's Haroun and the Sea of Stories, for which New York City Opera presented her with the 2005 Kolozsvar Award, recognizing artists who excel at new and unusual repertory. She returned the following season as the Comtesse de Folleville in Il viaggio a Reims. Ms. Buck's first performances of Maid in Thomas Ades' Powder Her Face occurred at Aspen Opera Theater and she subsequently reprised the role with Brooklyn Philharmonic, at London's Almeida Theatre, Opéra-Théâtre de Metz at the Aldeburgh Festival, and Boston Modern Opera Project. Other international credits include appearing with De Vlaamse Opera as Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and with Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu as both Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos and First Niece in Peter Grimes. She also performed at the Britten-Pears School (UK) in the role of Tytania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Other opera highlights include Ms. Buck's performances of Iris in Semele with Arizona Opera; Laoula in L'Étoile with Opera Boston; and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas in a re-engagement with Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, also with the Spoleto Festival USA. She appeared as Adina in L'elisir d'amore and Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice with Opera Birmingham, and as Stella in Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire with Washington National Opera. She has performed the role of Queen of the Night with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Birmingham, Opera Delaware, Wolf Trap Opera, Calgary Opera, and for her Santa Fe Opera debut.
Ms. Buck's concert credits include performances of Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society and Pacific Symphony; Carmina Burana with San Antonio Symphony Orchestra; Handel's Jeptha with Choral Society of Durham; Tan Dun's Water Passion after St. Matthew at the White Nights Festival in Russia; and both Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mozart's Requiem with Westchester Philharmonic. She has sung Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Bard Music Festival; Beethoven's Die Ruinen von Athen with the American Symphony Orchestra; Mozart's Mass in C Minor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra; Bach's Mass in B Minor with Baltimore Choral Arts Society; and the world premiere of Ezra Laderman's Brotherly Love with the Philadelphia Singers.
Ms. Buck holds a Master of Music degree from Yale, where she studied with Doris Yarick-Cross. She received her B.A. in music from Tufts University and a B.F.A. in studio art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
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