Jamie Barton, Mezzo-Soprano
Kathleen Kelly, Piano
Sunday, October 25, 2026
3 PM • Memorial Hall
Critically acclaimed by virtually every major outlet covering classical music, American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton is increasingly recognized for how she uses her powerful instrument offstage – lifting up women, queer people, and other marginalized communities. Her lively social media presence on Instagram and Twitter (@jbartonmezzo) serves as a hub for conversations about body positivity, social justice issues, and LGBTQ+ rights.
In recognition of her iconic performance at the Last Night of the Proms, Ms. Barton was named 2020 Personality of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards. She is also the winner of the International Opera Awards Readers’ Award, Beverly Sills Artist Award, Richard Tucker Award, and BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, for which The Guardian described her as “a great artist, no question, with an imperturbable steadiness of tone, and a nobility of utterance that invites comparison not so much with her contemporaries as with mid-20th century greats such as Kirsten Flagstad.”
This season, Ms. Barton stars as Sister Helen Prejean in a highly anticipated 25th anniversary production of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera. She returns to Houston Grand Opera for a series of role debuts, including Frugola, Zia Principessa, and Zita in Puccini’s Il trittico, as well as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and she brings her acclaimed Ježibaba to performances of Rusalka at Bayerische Staatsoper and Opéra National de Paris.
Elsewhere, she appears in concert with Houston Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, and in recital with Opera Memphis and Arizona Opera with Tucson Desert Song Festival. Following the fulfillment of a long-held dream to create a role in a new opera by Jake Heggie, her work as Elizabeth Van Lew in Heggie’s Intelligence at Houston Grand Opera appears on the world premiere recording on the LSO Live label – recently winning Best Opera Recording of the 2026 Grammy® Awards.
Ms. Barton’s 2007 win at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions launched a major international career that includes leading roles at many of the world’s most-loved opera houses.
Praised by Gramophone as having “the sort of instrument you could listen to all day, in any sort of repertoire,” Ms. Barton has appeared in concert with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, and Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Cologne, Dallas, Iceland, London, Munich, Orlando, Paris, Prague, Czech Republic, Oulu, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Valencia, Spain. She has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax at Tanglewood, and in recital across the U.S. and U.K., including tours with pianists Kathleen Kelly, Bradley Moore, and James Baillieu, with appearances at London’s Barbican Centre, Carnegie Hall, Celebrity Series of Boston, John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, and Wigmore Hall.
Winner of the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award, Ms. Barton’s debut solo album, All Who Wander, featuring songs by Mahler, Dvorak, and Sibelius, was also shortlisted for the International Classical Music Awards and Gramophone Classical Music Awards. Most recently, Unexpected Shadows, her critically acclaimed album with composer and pianist Jake Heggie, was nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Ms. Barton and Mr. Heggie’s subsequent recital tour to Frankfurt, London, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Berkeley, California was warmly received, with the San Francisco Chronicle writing, “Barton is both a powerhouse and a whisperer. In performance, the Georgia-born artist can unleash a torrent of vocal sound that seems unconquerable in its heft and intensity – then turn on a dime and shape an intimate melodic phrase with aching subtlety. It’s an astonishing, almost otherworldly combination of gifts.”
Kathleen Kelly, Piano
Kathleen Kelly’s practice combines her skills as pianist, coach, conductor, writer, and advocate. During the 2025-26 season, she will join both Jamie Barton and Ryan McKinny in recitals, lead the Texas premiere of Notes on Viardot for Baylor Opera Theater, and return to the New National Theater Opera Studio in Tokyo to lead performances of Gianni Schicchi. She also introduced the groundbreaking Collaborative Piano Playbook for the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society with co-author Elvia Puccinelli.
Recent notable projects include her chapter on current industry practice for Chanda Vanderhart’s book Accompaniment in America, her acclaimed recording FORCE OF NATURE with soprano Emily Albrink, and her performance in the filmed opera INTERSTATE. Her international performing credits include appearances at Wigmore Hall, Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, the Kennedy Center, Spivey Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has been part of the musical teams at the San Francisco, Metropolitan, Houston Grand, and Vienna State Operas, and is a regular guest coach for the New National Theater Tokyo Opera Studio. Her work has been published in VAN Magazine and The Journal of Singing. She is the Director of the Vocal Studies Division at Baylor University.
PROGRAM
TBA
