Carmen Balthrop (soprano)

Carmen Balthrop has an astonishing range of repertoire from Baroque opera to contemporary song literature. She has appeared with most of the major opera companies in North America including The Metropolitan, San Francisco and Houston, as well as European opera houses including Venice(Teatro La Fenice) and Berlin (Teatro des Westens).Her many orchestral appearances include oratorio and concert performances with the New York Philharmonic, National, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Houston and Detroit symphonies.

In great demand as a recitalist, she has performed at the White House, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, as well as the major venues of Italy, the Netherlands, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, Beijing and Shanghai, China and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Nassau,Bahamas. National Public Radio chose to air, on Christmas day (2000), the live recording of her Chrismas art song recital, performed at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Ms.Balthrop's discography, found on the Deutsche Grammophon, Elan, New World, and Fonit Cetra labels, includes the title roles of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha and Claudio Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Her solo compact disc entitled The Art Of Christmas, Volume I was released in the fall of 2004 and is available at CDBaby.com.

A Professor of Voice in the School of Music at the University of Maryland, she has been inducted into the University's Alumni Hall of Fame.

Recent engagements include: singing: for the visit of President Nelson Mandela; the soprano lead in the world premier of composer/double bassist, Frank Proto's The Tuner at the International String Bass Convention in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Michaela in Bizet's Carmen with Opera Columbus; her debut in the title role of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with Opera Columbus. In October of 2006, she traveled to Taipei, Taiwan where she held audience with the President of Taiwan and performed in recital; In December she sang the east coast premiere of the one-woman opera, At The Statue of Venus by Jake Heggie and Terence McNally, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center; February and March, 2007, respectively, find her in Philadelphia with Opera North featuring her Songs of Color recital and at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in concert with Dr. Diane White, for a Women's History Month Celebration in This is Her Story-This is Her Song, A three-day symposium on Black Women and song.