From: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. LA Opera: Bess in Breaking the Waves (2021; LAO On Now).
Kiera Duffy has appeared with the many of the world’s elite orchestras and opera companies, including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Opera Philadelphia, Ongaku-Juku Festival in Japan, and Wexford Festival in Ireland. Her chamber music appearances include Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Aldeburgh Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, Bard SummerScape Festival, Tanglewood Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, and the Collaborative Arts Institute in Chicago.
She is widely recognized for her interpretations of modern and contemporary repertoire, including that of composers of the “Second Viennese School,” post-modernists Berio, Boulez, Carter, del Tredici, and Ligeti, and contemporary composers Thomas Adès, John Adams, Derek Bermel, Unsuk Chin, Esa Pekka-Salonen, Caroline Shaw, and many others. In 2016 Kiera premiered the role of Bess McNeill in Missy Mazzoli’s new opera Breaking the Waves with Opera Philadelphia and the Prototype Festival in New York City. Her performance garnered widespread acclaim, including from the New York Times, who called her portrayal “one of the top operatic performances of the year” and WQXR in New York City who declared hers the “Top Female Operatic Performance of 2016.” She will create leading roles in new operas by Rene Orth and George Lewis in 2021.
