©Photo: Kristin Hoebermann

Erin Wall (1975 — 2020)

Soprano

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“Erin Wall is the Thaïs of one’s dreams, wielding a soprano of radiance, pristine beauty and tingling top notes…Singing without a score, she made us believe every word.”
(Financial Times)

Thanks to an innate musicality and vocal versatility, soprano Erin Wall finds herself in great demand by many of the world’s leading conductors for performances on the opera and concert stages of the world. Particularly associated with the music of Mozart, Strauss and Mahler, she boasts an extensive repertoire spanning three centuries.

In the current season, Erin Wall reprises her unanimously praised Ellen Orford in concert performances of Peter Grimes with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner in Bergen, Oslo and London; sings Vier letzte Lieder with both Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under John Wilson and Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Donald Runnicles and returns to City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 which she also joins in San Francisco marking Michael Tilson-Thomas’ closing concerts as Music Director of the SFSO.

Last season brought several significant new operatic roles for Erin Wall: Chrysothemis in Elektra for the Canadian Opera Company under Music Director Johannes Debus, Elettra in Idomeneo for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Third Norn in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung at the Edinburgh International Festival, both conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Other operatic highlights include acclaimed debuts as Vanessa, Arabella and Daphne at Santa Fe Opera, Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala and Los Angeles Opera, Clémence (L’amour de loin) and Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro) at Canadian Opera Company, Desdemona (Otello) for Vancouver Opera, and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at The Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper and San Francisco Opera. Erin also met with unparalleled acclaim for her interpretation of Massenet’s Thaïs, which she performed in concert version under Sir Andrew Davis at both the Edinburgh International Festival and with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of the recent concert schedule include Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Franz Welser-Möst, with Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Christoph Eschenbach and with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vier letzte Lieder with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Edward Gardner and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the World Orchestra for Peace and Donald Runnicles as part of the BBC Proms.

Erin Wall’s extensive discography includes Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis (MSO Live), Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with Bayerischer Rundfunk/Mariss Jansons (BR Klassik), as well as several recordings of Mahler’s Symphony No.8 (San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson-Thomas, Staatskapelle Berlin/Pierre Boulez) and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal/Kent Nagano and San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson-Thomas). On DVD, Erin Wall features on Britten’s War Requiem (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons) on Arthus and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 (hr-sinfonieorchester/Paavo Järvi) on Unitel.

Gallery

Mahler: Symphony No.8 (excerpts) © Deutsche Grammophon

“Erin Wall’s Ellen gleams high above them – a still point of goodness among so much turbulence. .. It’s a finely judged account – lovely but life-scarred, self-deceiving enough to be a viable match for Skelton’s lost soul.”

(Opera magazine, November 2020)

“Erin Wall sang Ellen Orford with emotional intricacy and a warm, sincere tone that made her the ideal foil to [her Peter Grimes].”

(OperaMag, Feb 2020)

“Erin Wall was an anguished Ellen, with radiant tone”

(The Times, December 2019)

“Erin Wall deployed all her registers topped by a creamy top line to full effect as a surprisingly youthful-sounding Ellen Orford”

(Classical Source, December 2019)

“Erin Wall has the ideal lyricism … for Ellen Orford, so classy in the “Embroidery Aria””

(Arts Desk, December 2019)

“Erin Wall hits all the right notes in every sense as the emotionally wavering Chrysothemis.”

(Toronto Star, January 2019)

“As the avenging Elettra, Erin Wall flung vocal thunderbolts this way and that with ‘D’Oreste, d’Aiace’ as the opera’s ‘other woman’, singing herself to death.”

(Opera Magazine, February 2019)

“Erin Wall was a silver-toned Arabella…underscoring the regal, aristocratic quality of the character.”

(Opera Magazine, February 2018)

“Erin Wall sang Ellen with Straussian bloom”

(Opera Magazine, October 2017)

“Gardner would be hard to beat as a conductor of this opera, and he assembled a first-rate cast around Skelton. Chief among them were Erin Wall’s compassionate, luminous Ellen Orford”

(The Times, August 2017)

“Erin Wall was a vocally glorious Ellen Orford, infusing her arias and the Act 2 quartet with Straussian radiance”

(The Telegraph, August 2017)

“Erin Wall gave a splendid, gleamingly sung performance as Vanessa that conveyed both the woman’s pensiveness and the transformation of her spirits after winning Anatol’s affections.”

(Opera Magazine, November 2016)

“Erin Wall’s explosive soprano embodied Vanessa’s delusions”

(Wall Street Journal, August 2016)

”Equally attractive, Erin Wall gave the Santa Fe audience a thoughtful, provocative portrayal of the role. Wall has a wide range of vocal color and she used it to add emotional impact to her music. Her aria “Do not utter a word, Anatol” secured her position as the diva of the evening.”

(Bachtrack, August 2016)

“Soprano Erin Wall had shattering power in the title role, her voice revealing all of Vanessa’s pent-up frustration, but with a striking high pianissimo also in her arsenal.”

(Washington Post, July 2016)

“As the Countess, Erin Wall offered silvery tone with plenty of chiaroscuro.”

(Opera Magazine, June 2016)

“Amid that storm, soprano soloist Erin Wall could be heard delivering a series of lightning-bolt high C’s, the culmination of a powerful presence throughout the movement.”

(Boston Classical Review, September 2015)

“…the finely balanced solo quartet, led by Hanno Müller-Brachmann’s authoritative bass and Erin Wall’s laser-like soprano, were outstanding.”

(Tim Ashley, The Guardian, June 2015)