Recognized for her unique artistic curiosity in world-class performances spanning the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Johann Adolph Hasse 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.
Lauren Snouffer increasingly is in demand on the world’s most prestigious concert stages and, in the 2022–23 season, collaborations include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra; also with Cleveland, she sings John Adams’ El Niño with the composer on the podium, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, Handel’s Jeptha with Dame Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque, Handel’s Messiah with Maasaki Suzuki and the San Francisco Symphony, Bach’s Mass in G Major with Bernard Labadie and the Handel & Haydn Society, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic, and Hans Abrahamsen’s Let Me Tell You with Alan Gilbert conducting the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. Operatic performances of the season include Die Zauberflöte in a return engagement with Opernhaus Zürich, Le nozze di Figaro with Houston Grand Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia at Austin Opera, and debuts at Santa Fe Opera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with a world premiere orchestration by Nico Muhly and at Detroit Opera in Xerxes.
Last season, Lauren Snouffer made her debut at the Opéra national du Rhin in the lead role of The Snow Queen by Hans Abrahamsen, directed by James Bonas and Grégoire Pont under the baton of Robert Houssart, and she bowed in two new productions with the Opernhaus Zürich: the title role in the world premiere of Girl with a Pearl Earring by composer Stefan Wirth and Argene in Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade conducted by Ottavio Dantone. At Houston Grand Opera, she gave performances of Dialogues des Carmélites in a production by Francesca Zambello and joined Dallas Opera in acclaimed opera galas led by Emmanuel Villaume.
Operatic performances on leading international stages have fortified the soprano’s place as one of the eminent interpreters of contemporary music: she undertook the title role of Berg’s Lulu at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago conducted by Pedro-Pablo Prudencio and directed by Mariame Clément, and she returned to Houston Grand Opera for the world premieres of 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.
Lauren Snouffer’s concert schedule 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, Cristian Măcelaru and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Krzysztof Urbański and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Edo de Waart and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Labadie and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Markus Stenz and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Patrick Dupré Quigley and Seraphic Fire, Raphaël Pichon and the Handel & Haydn Society, and with Marin Alsop and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.
Past seasons include Houston Grand Opera performances of Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Harry Bicket in a production by Michael Grandage as well as presentations of Carousel, Show Boat, The Rape of Lucretia and L’italiana in Algeri; Lyric Opera of Chicago performances of Rusalka, La clemenza di Tito, and a new production of Orphée et Eurydice directed and choreographed by John Neumeier under the baton of Harry Bicket; a Seattle Opera debut as La Comtesse Adèle in Rossini’s Le comte Ory conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti; Die Zauberflöte at Seattle Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City; a new Christopher Alden production of Handel’s Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan; and Max Emanuel Cenčić’s new production of Hasse’s Siroe at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, with additional performances in Budapest and Vienna.
Closely associated with Sir George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, Lauren Snouffer has sung under the composer’s baton at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music and with the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Opera Philadelphia. She has performed Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, presented the world premiere of Andrew Norman’s A Trip to the Moon with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and joined Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in the title role of HK Gruber’s Gloria—A Pig Tale in a production staged by Doug Fitch.
A Grammy Award-nominated artist, Lauren Snouffer’s impactful discography includes Hasse’s Siroe and Handel’s Ottone with George Petrou (Decca), Gottschalk’s Requiem for the Living with Vladimir Lande (Novona Records), Grantham’s La cancíon desesperada conducted by Craig Hella Johnson (Harmonia Mundi), and Feldman’s The Rothko Chapel with Steven Schick (ECM).
An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Lauren Snouffer graduated from Rice University and The Juilliard School.