BIOGRAPHY
With polished, elegant vocalism and committed dramatic portrayals on-stage, mezzo-soprano JAMIE VAN EYCK appeals to audiences and critics alike as a compelling artist in opera and concert. This season, she appears as soloist in holiday concerts for the Lexington Philharmonic, Handel’s Messiah with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the American Bach Soloists Festival. She gives recitals for Baylor University, William Paterson University, and Juilliard. Jamie sings the role of Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel for the Bar Harbor Music Festival, and is a soloist in Austin’s epic Bernstein100 Festival performances of Bernstein’s Mass. She also sings in recital with pianist Joseph Li on the Atelier Concert Series at the American Church in Paris. She recently sang the role of Rosie Chayney in The Manchurian Candidate for Austin Opera, and Ariodante in Handel’s Ariodante at National Sawdust in New York City, with director R. B. Schlather. She sang Dido and the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas on tour with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and performed scenes from The Crucible and The Turn of the Screw for the Institute for Women Conductors with Nicole Paiement for the Dallas Opera. She performed excerpts from new operas on Fort Worth Opera’s Frontier’s Festival, and covered the role of Jacqueline Kennedy in Fort Worth Opera’s world premiere of JFK, by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek.
Jamie made her debut with Arizona Opera as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, earning praise from Opera Today for “singing her arias with polished tones and bringing the audience thoughts of first love.” Jamie has also sung the role for the Bar Harbor Music Festival and Opera Theater of St. Louis. In concert, she has performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the American Symphony Orchestra and Madison Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah with the Phoenix Symphony, Colorado Symphony, and Utah Symphony. She recently made her New York City solo recital debut with pianist Jocelyn Dueck at The National Opera Center. Recent festival appearances include concerts for California’s Ojai Festival and Ojai North, Dido in Dido and Aeneas for Moscow’s Golden Mask Festival, and recitals for the Grahamstown and FynArts Festivals in South Africa.
Other opera credits include performances with Boston Lyric Opera as The Drummer in The Emperor of Atlantis and as Daughter in the world premiere performances of The After-Image. She returned to Utah Opera as Meg in Little Women, giving a performance that Opera News called, “luminescent.” She sang the role of Hansel in Hansel and Gretel for the Alabama Symphony, and Flora in La Traviata for the Pacific Symphony. With the Bard SummerScape Festival, Jamie has been seen in the roles of Alkmene in Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae, and Milli in Schreker’s Der Ferner Klang. She sang Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw and Jade Boucher in Dead Man Walking for Madison Opera, Stefano in Roméo et Juliette for the Bar Harbor Music Festival, and Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi for the Princeton Festival. During her consecutive residencies at Wolf Trap Opera, she sang the roles of Dorabella in Così fan tutte, and Melanto in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, for which the Washington Post called her “a standout!”
A frequent recitalist, Jamie has appeared in repeat engagements with the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Dallas Museum of Art Concert Series, and New York’s Five Boroughs Music Festival. In concert, she has performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the American Symphony Orchestra and with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Other concert appearances include Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis with the Bard SummerScape Festival, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the New England Contemporary Ensemble, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été with City Music-Cleveland. She sang Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and Das Lied von der Erde in Boston with the Harvard-Radcliffe Symphony, and has twice performed in recital with acclaimed pianist, Steven Blier, at Wolf Trap. With the National Symphony Orchestra, she was a soloist in This Way to Broadway with Marvin Hamlisch, and she sang The Old Lady in Candide, for which The Washington Times declared, “her robust and authoritative instrument carried the day!” She has been featured in several Pops concerts with conductor Keith Lockhart, and she made her Broadway debut in Jerome Kern’s Music in the Air for New York City Center.
Bridge Records recently released Jamie’s second recording for the label titled, Complete Crumb Edition Volume 15, featuring George Crumb’s American Songbook V: Voices from a Forgotten World. The disc has been praised as “consistently wonderful” and “not to be missed” by Classics Today. She has also recorded for Albany Records and Centaur Records. An avid proponent of new music, Jamie has sung two world premiere performances at Carnegie Hall, including Ned Rorem’s Three Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. At Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music, she performed the role of Mama in the North American staged premiere of Elliott Carter’s What Next. For her leading role, the Hartford Courant proclaimed that she “performed beautifully with exacting musical precision and strong charisma.” Her performance can be seen on the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s DVD release of the opera.