
Lyric coloratura soprano Evelyn Pollock is a
The 2008-09 season includes two premieres in which Ms. Pollock and her husband, tenor Derek Taylor, will sing opposite each other: as Violetta and Alfredo in La Traviata and as Valencienne and Camille in Die Lustige Witwe. Her season opens with a rarely performed Haydn opera, Il Mondo della Luna, in which she sings the role of Clarice with the Oper St. Gallen. The Traviata then follows in October, and Lustige Witwe in December. Ms. Pollock returns to America in February for her debut with the Florida Grand Opera as the title role in Delibes' Lakme. The 08-09 opera season rounds out with her first R. Strauss role, as Zdenka in Arabella. Ms. Pollock's Belgian debut will take place that spring with the Charlemagne Orchestra in Brussels as the Soprano Soloist in Elijah.
Performances for the busy 2006-07 season began with Musetta at the Kentucky Opera. Reported Opera News: Evelyn Pollock's brilliantly sung Musetta ignited the stage, 'working the room' like a pro, rejoicing in life, but exhibiting a tenderness brought out by the ebullient staging." In January, she performed Ännchen in Der Freischütz at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center. She then made her soloist debut in Carnegie Hall singing both versions of Mozart's Regina Coeli and Schubert's Mass in G. In February she returned to Palm Beach Opera for Elvira in L'Italiana in Algeri, and then made her Opera Company Philadelphia debut as Nannetta in Falstaff. Thereafter she sang her first Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Michigan Opera Theater.
Her 2005-6 season included performances of six debut roles: Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Norina in Don Pasquale with the Palm Beach Opera, Woglinde in Das Rheingold, Ellen (cover) in Lakmé with the Opera Orchestra of New York, and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Tulsa Opera. During the summer, she returned to the Wolf Trap Festival to essay the role of Cephisa in Telemann's unique tri-lingual opera Orpheus.
The summer of 2005 marked her debut at the Wolf Trap Festival, where she sang a "gently shimmering...unusually affecting " Zerlina (Opera News) in Don Giovanni and Clorinda in La Cenerentola; additionally, she performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and in The Latest Word Song Recital with Steven Blier. Miss Pollock recently made her
2003-04 was a busy season, adding six new roles to Ms. Pollock’s repertoire. As a
Ms. Pollock was first heard at the Santa Fe Opera in 2003 as an Apprentice Artist, covering the title role in the world premiere of Bright Sheng’s Madame Mao. She was also the only Apprentice selected to perform with the
In past seasons, Ms. Pollock has also sung with the Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera, the Western Opera Theatre Tour, the Colorado Symphony, Central City Opera, and the Accademia Verdiana in Busseto, Italy. She received her training from the Academy of Vocal Arts, Indiana University in Bloomington, and
Her concert credits include soloist appearances in Handel’s Messiah, Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Copland’s In the Beginning, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Bach’s B Minor Mass. She has also been heard in the opera broadcasts of
A native of Chicago, Ms. Pollock is a District and Regional Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a second Place Winner of the Opera Index Competition and the Mario Lanza Competition, a Grand Prize Winner of the Bel Canto Foundation and the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition, and an Audience Favorite in the Travel Grant Competitions. She is a two-time Sara Tucker Grant Finalist, a National Semi-finalist of the Macallister Awards, and a major award winner of the Loren L. Zachary Competition.
Ms. Pollock also graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in Psychology at Northwestern University. Prior to that she was the valedictorian of her graduating class at Lake Forest High School. She and her husband, tenor Derek Taylor, make their home in Switzerland.