Valdine Anderson

• BMus, University of Manitoba
• BEd, University of Manitoba
• Opera Diploma, University of Toronto

Canadian soprano Valdine Anderson is renowned throughout the world for the wide range of her operatic and concert repertoire from the baroque to the contemporary.

Ms. Anderson made her European operatic debut as the Maid in the extremely successful world première of Almeida Opera's production of Powder Her Face (Thomas Adès) at the Cheltenham Festival and Almeida Theatre. She recreated this role with great success for Opera de Nantes in their 2001/2 season. In October 2007, she performed the role at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, as part of The Jewel of Russia Festival and recently returned there for a concert performance of the piece in the White Nights Festival.  

In 1998, Ms. Anderson made her English National Opera debut in Gavin Bryar's Dr Ox's Experiment.  In 2000, she appeared in concert performances of Elliott Carter’s opera, What Next? at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. In the 2004/5 season, she appeared in a concert production of Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers (Elizabeth Zimmer) with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Her regular concert appearances in the UK have included performances at the Edinburgh Festival and the BBC Proms in 1998 (with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Sir Mark Elder), in 1999 (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jukka-Pekka Saraste) and 2002 (with the London Sinfonietta). She has also worked with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Nash Ensemble, Gavin Bryar's Ensemble and Hilliard Ensemble.

Elsewhere, Ms. Anderson has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, New York Philharmonic, L'Orchestre National de France, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Paris and Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also appeared with the Asko Ensemble, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Ms. Anderson has collaborated with many of the great composers of our time including George Benjamin, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, Gavin Bryars and Gérard Grisey. She has worked with such eminent conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Herreweghe, Sir Colin Davis, Edo de Waart and David Zinman. In celebration of Pierre Boulez’s 75th birthday, she toured Europe with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Boulez himself in performances of Pli selon pli. In November 2003 she toured the US in a new work by Dutilleux, Correspondences, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle.

Other engagements have included a world premiere by Brett Dean with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, concert performances of Powder her Face with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican and with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen, performances of Boulez Trois Improvisations sur Mallarmé with the Orchestre de Paris and Christoph Eschenbach, a concert performing Five Eliot Landscapes by Adès at Carnegie Hall and a new commission by Hans Kox for the Netherlands Radio.

Ms. Anderson has appeared at many international festivals worldwide including Aspen, Holland and Edinburgh and given a recital at the Wigmore Hall.

In Canada, she has appeared with Edmonton Opera, Manitoba Opera and Vancouver Opera where roles have included Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Micaela (Carmen) and Papagena (The Magic Flute).  Recent seasons have included Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) for Edmonton Opera, the title role in a new production of Floyd's Susannah for Calgary Opera and a concert performance of a new opera The Scarlet Princess for the Canadian Opera Company.  She sang Sibelius’ Luonnotar with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Canadian premiere of Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as premiering many works with the Winnipeg Symphony’s New Music Concerts. Recent Canadian appearances have included Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Bramwell Tovey in 2013.

Ms. Anderson’s many recordings include Maxwell-Davies' Job (Collins), Freedman's Spirit Song, Adès' Five Eliot Landscapes (EMI), Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables (BIS) (Naxos), Bryars' Adnan’s Songbook (Point Music), Torke Book of Proverbs (Decca) and a CD of the BBC Proms performance of Szymanowski's Songs of a Fairy Princess (BBC Music), Adès Powder Her Face (EMI), nominated for a Grammy Award, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the BBC Scottish Symphony (BBC Music) which won a Prairie Music Award, Carter's What Next? (ECM), and more. 

Ms. Anderson has an established private vocal studio in Winnipeg and conducts the award-winning women’s choir, Esprit de Choeur, as well as choirs from Balmoral Hall School. She serves on many panels for national and international competitions, and has served often as a juror for the Canada Council for the Arts. Ms. Anderson is in demand as a new-music consultant and coach, and assisted conductor Tyrone Paterson as consultant for Manitoba Opera’s 2016 production of Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men. She is the Artistic Director of Esprit de Choeur, a Winnipeg women's choir.

Valdine Anderson performs "Fancy Being Rich," from Powder Her Face, by Thomas Ades

Valdine Anderson performs "Shaman's Song," by Harry Somers

Valdine Anderson performs "Chantefleurs et Chantefables," by Witold Lutoslawski

Valdine Anderson performs "The Way of an Eagle," from Book of Proverbs by Michael Torke