A five-time Grammy Award winner, Dawn Upshaw is a leading American soprano, known for her exceptional interest in contemporary music, and is highly active as a recitalist.  Raised outside of Chicago, Upshaw attended Illinois Wesleyan and later the Manhattan School of Music (studying with Ellen Faull) before rising to national prominence in 1984 by winning the Young Concert Artist Auditions. A year later she won the prestigious Naumberg Competition and soon was receiving leading roles on many of the world’s most well-known opera stages (including more than 300 at the Met). In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is featured on more than 50 recordings, including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Gorecki for Nonesuch Records.