Susanna Phillips

Alabama-born soprano Susanna Phillips is one of today’s most sought-after singing actors and recitalists. Ms. Phillips is a recipient of The Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award. Known for her sparkling portrayal of Musetta in La bohème, Ms. Phillips has sung at the Met as Musetta, Pamina, Donna Anna, Rosalinde, Antonia Stella, Micaëla, Donna Elvira, and most recently in her role debut as Mimi. Role highlights at the Met include Fiordigili, which The New York Times called a “breakthrough night”, and Clémence in the Met premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin. Ms. Phillips was also a featured artist in the Met’s Summer Recital Series. 

The start of Ms. Phillips’s career found her at the Zürich Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Sante Fe Opera as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Arminda in La finta giardiniera. As a member of the Ryan Opera Center, Ms. Phillips sang the female leads in Roméo et Juliette and Die fledermaus. Additional roles include Elmira in Reinhard Keiser’s The Fortunes of King Croesus and the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor and Agrippina. Ms. Phillips paid tribute to Clara Schumann at the Library of Congress and collaborated with Jane Glover for Handel’s Messiah and Rival Divas program with Music of the Baroque. Ms. Phillips performed in a concert staging as Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire at Carnegie Hall opposite Renée Fleming - a role Ms. Phillips went on to perform, to rave reviews, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Ms. Phillips has also performed with the Gran Teatro del liceu as Pamina, Cincinnati Opera as Countess Almaviva, and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in her role and company debut as Birdie in Blitzstein’s Regina with Susan Graham. She sang Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes with the St. Louis Symphony in St. Louis and Carnegie Hall. Ms. Phillips gave a recital at the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago and sang alongside Eric Owens at the Washington Performing Arts in a program co-curated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ms. Phillips has made appearances at Oper Frankfurt, Dallas Opera, Minnesota Opera, Fort Worth Opera Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, and Opera Birmingham. 

Highly in demand by the world’s most prestigious orchestras, Ms. Phillips has appeared with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Atlanta Symphony, Santa Fe Concert Association, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Boston Baroque, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and her native Huntsville Symphony where she celebrated the bicentennial of Alabama performing Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder. 

Ms. Phillips is dedicated to oratorio works with credits including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler’s Second and Fourth Symphonies, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, the Fauré and Mozart Requiems, and Carmina Burana. An avid chamber music collaborator, Ms. Phillips has worked frequently with pianists Craig Terry and Myra Huang. Together they have performed solo recitals all over the United States. Ms. Phillips also co-founded Twickenham Fest, a chamber music festival in her native Huntsville, Alabama alongside bassoonist and Huntsville native, Matthew McDonald. In 2019, the festival celebrated its 10th Anniversary of chamber music with over ten concerts ranging from a children’s concert, to a late night Bach concert, and Philip Lasser’s Colors of Feeling. 

This season, Ms. Phillips joins Music of the Baroque and conductor Dame Jane Glover for Handel’s Messiah, and later joins Fort Worth Symphony for Alan Fletcher’s Three American Songs and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. She returns to Lincoln Center for a concert alongside the Catalyst Quartet at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and reunites with Kent Tritle for both Mahler’s 4th Symphony and Wayne Oquin’s Leaves of Grass. She also gave three performances alongside David Portillo and Robert Tweten at the Sag Harbor Song Festival, with repertoire including arias and ensembles of Verdi and Mozart, and songs, chamber works, and theater pieces by Barber, Morten Lauridsen, Gershwin, Sondheim, and others. Additional highlights include Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Apollo Orchestra and David Chan and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She also tours alongside Paul Neubauer, violist, and Anne-Marie McDermott, pianist with the SPA Trio to various venues across the United States.  

Last season, Ms. Phillips appeared four times at Carnegie Hall, joining Musica Sacra for Exultate Jubilate, the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble and conductor Yannick Nézet Séguin for Chabrier's "L'invitation au voyage," Oratorio Society of New York for Mendelssohn's Lobgesang and Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s All Shall Rise, and John Matthew Myers, Sasha Cooke, and pianist Evgeny Kissin in recital for Shostakovitch’s From Jewish Folk Poetry. She also returned to San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for Carmina Burana conducted by David Robertson, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gemma New for Beethoven 9, and Seattle Symphony with David Robertson for The Creation.  

The season prior, Ms. Phillips sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Boston Baroque and joined the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for Beethoven 9. She joined both Music of the Baroque and Oratorio Society of New York for the Mozart Requiem and Bach Magnificat, and returned to OSNY later in the season for Beethoven 9 and Mahler 2. In addition, she gave recitals with Myra Huang, Gloria Chein and Anthony McGill at Dallas Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Spivey Hall in Atlanta. Previous season highlights include a return to the Metropolitan Opera for role debut as Mimi in La Bohème, joining Dallas Symphony for Mendelssohn's Lobgesang and the Utah Symphony for Elijah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and concert and recital engagements including Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder with the Amarillo Symphony, a recital with True Concord at the Tuscon Desert Song Festival, Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony with Oregon Bach Festival, and a recital with Chamber Music Northwest. Other highlights included a return to her native Huntsville, engagements with OSNY and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Celebrity Boston Series, Bravo! Vail, and a world premiere of Picker’s Awakenings at OTSL. 

A native of Huntsville, Alabama, over 400 people traveled from her hometown to New York City in December 2008 for Ms. Phillips’s Met Opera debut in La Bohème . She returns frequently to her native state for recitals and orchestral appearances.