Recognized for her unique artistic curiosity in world-class performances spanning the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Georg Frideric Handel through to Missy Mazzoli and Sir George Benjamin, American Lauren Snouffer is celebrated as one of the most versatile and respected sopranos on the international stage.
Snouffer makes her Metropolitan Opera debut this season as Sarah Kavalier in the premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, an exhilarating adaptation by Mason Bates and Gene Scheer of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel; her much-anticipated debut also marks the soprano’s first collaborations with music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and stage director Bartlett Sher. Additionally, Snouffer makes her role debut as Stella Kowalski at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in artistic director Patricia Racette’s production of Sir André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, which brings to life Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama—a masterpiece of 20th-century American theater.
Symphonic performances of the 2025–26 season include the world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s For everything you keep losing with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Hans Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you at the Minnesota Orchestra led by Thomas Søndergård, and the role of Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony. A frequent collaborator of Dame Jane Glover, Lauren Snouffer appears with The Philadelpia Orchestra in performances of Mozart’s Requiem and with the Fort Worth Symphony as featured soloist in Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate paired with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Handel’s Messiah brings the soprano together with Cristian Măcelaru and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Cohen and the Handel & Haydn Society and Michael Francis and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Last season, Lauren Snouffer fulfilled three high-profile role debuts: the title role of Debussy’s hallowed Pelléas et Mélisande at The Dallas Opera, directed by Jetske Mijnssen and led by Ludovic Morlot; Bess McNeill in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s adaptation of Lars von Trier’s acclaimed feature film Breaking the Waves at the Houston Grand Opera, in a production by Tom Morris with Patrick Summers on the podium; and the title role of Handel’s Semele at The Atlanta Opera.
No less dynamic was the soprano’s concert calendar of 2024–25, which included debuts at the Salzburg Mozartwoche in a program of Haydn and Mozart conducted by Roberto González-Monjas, and with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and conductor Elena Schwarz in performances of Hans Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you paired with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Appearances also included Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet with the Telegraph Quartet under the auspices of DaCamera of Houston, Handel’s Alceste with Peter Whelan and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Messiah with Patrick Dupré Quigley leading the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Scott Hanoian and the Ann Arbor Symphony.
Operatic performances on leading international stages indisputably have fortified the soprano’s place as one of the eminent interpreters of contemporary music; she created the principal role of Justine in the world premiere of Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek’s opera Melancholia at the Royal Swedish Opera, the title role in Stefan Wirth’s Girl with a Pearl Earring with Opernhaus Zürich, and the lead role in Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen at Opera National du Rhin. Snouffer has assayed Berg’s iconic Lulu at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago conducted by Pedro-Pablo Prudencio and directed by Mariame Clément, and she has given numerous world premieres at Houston Grand Opera, including The Phoenix by composer Tarik O’Regan and librettist John Caird and The House Without a Christmas Tree by Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek. Closely associated with Sir George Benjamin’s masterpiece Written on Skin, Snouffer has performed this beautiful and bleak work under the composer’s baton at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music and with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and in staged productions at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Opera Philadelphia.
Fervently committed to repertoire of the Baroque and Classical eras, Lauren Snouffer made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte under the baton of Constantin Trinks (a role she also has performed at the Opernhaus Zürich and Seattle Opera), La clemenza di Tito and Orphée et Eurydice at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Rossini’s Le comte Ory at Seattle Opera and Hasse’s Siroe at the Opéra Royal de Versailles with additional performances in Budapest and Vienna. Further appearances include Xerxes at Detroit Opera, Monteverdi’s Orfeo with a world premiere orchestration by Nico Muhly at Santa Fe Opera, Dialogues des Carmélites in a production by Francesca Zambello and Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Harry Bicket in a production by Michael Grandage at Houston Grand Opera, which she considers her “artistic home.”
Lauren Snouffer’s concert profile has yielded marvelous results with many of the world’s most distinguished conductors and orchestras, including performances with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra, Raphaël Pichon and the Handel & Haydn Society, Masaaki Suzuki and the San Francisco Symphony, Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert conducting the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Edo de Waart and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Marin Alsop and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.
Highlighs of the recent past include performances of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, paired with Betsy Jolas’ Ces belles années, with Daniel Harding and The Cleveland Orchestra; Stravinsky’s Les noces with both the Orchestre de Paris and San Francisco Symphony conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen; and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Houston Symphony led by Juraj Valčuha. Snouffer has also appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Dame Jane Glover in Handel’s Messiah, performed with the Seattle Symphony and Nicholas McGegan in Bach’s St. John Passion and made innumerable appearances with Matthew Dirst and Ars Lyrica Houston.
A Grammy Award-nominated artist, her impactful recording catalogue includes Hasse’s Siroe and Handel’s Ottone with George Petrou for Decca, Gottschalk’s Requiem for the Living with Vladimir Lande on Novona Records, Grantham’s La canción desesperada conducted by Craig Hella Johnson on Harmonia Mundi and Feldman’s Rothko Chapel with Steven Schick for ECM.
An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Lauren Snouffer was graduated from Rice University and The Juilliard School.