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“Mezzo-soprano
Jill Grove offered a riveting portrait of
Azucena in Houston Grand Opera’s production of
Il Trovatore. Replacing an ailing Delora Zajick
on two weeks’ notice, Grove excelled vocally and
dramatically, delivering “Stride la vampa” with
power and nuance, revealing the character’s
vulnerability as well as her anger. Throughout
the evening, Grove rose to the vocal challenge
of Verdi’s exacting vocal demands and then some;
her chest tones around middle C and below, as
well as the sheer volume of sound she generated
in that register, were most impressive.” -Marcia
C. Citron, Opera News, April 2005
Renowned for her distinctive dramatic mezzo
soprano and passionate artistry, American mezzo
soprano Jill Grove has won critical raves
throughout America and Europe for her
distinguished portrayals of the heroines of
German and Italian opera. She is equally at home
with the world’s leading orchestras and in
recital. She was named as a winner of the 2003
ARIA award.
In the 2005/6 season, Jill Grove adds to her
list of Verdi roles with her first performances
of Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino marking
her return to San Francisco Opera in a new
production conducted by Nicola Luisotti. She
returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Margret in
Wozzeck under James Levine and repeats her
acclaimed Amneris (debut at Opera Pacific) and
Cieca (debut at the Teatro Municipal, Santiago).
Her busy concert season is dominated by the
Beethoven 9th Symphony in performances with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine
(including Carnegie Hall), the Los Angeles
Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen and the
Philadelphia Orchestra under Christoph
Eschenbach. She also appears with the St. Paul
Chamber Orchestra in a Mozart program under
Roberto Abbado and with the Seattle Symphony
(debut) in the Mozart Requiem under Itzhak
Perlman.
The 2004/5 season began with a return to London,
this time for her Royal Opera, Covent Garden
debut as La Cieca in critically-acclaimed
concert performances of La Gioconda conducted by
Antonio Pappano. She sang Azucena with Houston
Grand Opera. She then returned to Lyric Opera of
Chicago as Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried
conducted by Sir Andrew Davis as well as First
Norn in Götterdämmerung in the company’s
complete RING cycles. She also took part in
Lyric’s star-studded 50th anniversary gala in
October. Later in the season, she returned to
Santa Fe Opera as Auntie in a new production of
Peter Grimes under Alan Gilbert. In concert, she
sang her first performances of Brangäne in
Tristan und Isolde with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. She
performed the Verdi Requiem with the San Diego
Symphony and returned to the San Francisco
Symphony for Janacek’s Glagolithic Mass under
Michael Tilson Thomas. During the summer of
2004, she also made her Mostly Mozart Festival
debut at Lincoln Center in Mozart’s Requiem
under Louis Langrée and in December 2004 sang
Messiah with the Houston Symphony under Nicholas
McGegan.
Jill Grove’s roles at the Metropolitan Opera
have included both Erdas under Levine, Magdalene
in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (also Levine -
telecast and issued on DVD by Deutsche
Grammophon), Madelon in Andrea Chenier (opposite
Placido Domingo), Pantalis in Boito's
Mefistofele, Emilia in Otello under Levine and
Mary in Der Fliegende Holländer conducted by
Valery Gergiev. Her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut
was as Erda under Sir Andrew Davis. Her most
recent role at San Francisco Opera was Jenny
Reefer in Virgil Thompson’s The Mother of Us All
conducted by Donald Runnicles. Other American
operatic appearances have included her Dallas
Opera debut as First Norn in Götterdämmerung,
her first performances as Azucena in Il
Trovatore with Tulsa Opera and her Los Angeles
Opera debut in the world premiere of Tobias
Picker's The Fantastic Mr. Fox. She made her
debut at Santa Fe Opera as the Omniscient
Sea-Shell and also has sang Dame Quickly in
Verdi's Falstaff and Ursule in Beatrice and
Benedict there. She sang her first Amneris in
Aida with Dayton Opera. In Europe, she made her
Paris debut as the Haushälterin in Strauss' Die
Schweigsame Frau at the Théâtre du Châtelet
conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi and at the
Netherlands Opera as the Deaconess in
Szymanowski's King Roger. Jill Grove sang her
first Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera in her
European debut with the Welsh National Opera. As
a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, she
has performed numerous roles with the company
including Anne Kronenberg in the world Premiere
of Harvey Milk.
Jill Grove collaborates regularly with the
world’s leading orchestras and conductors. She
has performed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the
Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka
Salonen at the Hollywood Bowl, the New York
Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel, the National
Symphony under Leonard Slatkin, the Atlanta
Symphony under Roberto Abbado, the Houston
Symphony under Eschenbach and the Detroit
Symphony under Neemi Järvi. She performed the
Verdi Requiem with the Toronto Symphony under
Sir Andrew Davis. She has sung Mahler’s Third
Symphony at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and
with the Houston Symphony under Eschenbach and
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Houston
Symphony under Hans Graf and with the St. Louis
Symphony under Runnicles. Additional appearances
include Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with the
National Symphony Orchestra under Graf and
Mahler's Eighth Symphony and Frau Mary with the
San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson
Thomas. At the Cincinnati May Festival, she sang
the Mozart Requiem and Messiah under James
Conlon as well as presenting a solo recital. She
has performed Mahler's 8th Symphony with the
Norddeutsche Rundfunk under Eschenbach; with the
Minnesota Orchestra and Cincinnati May Festival
under James Conlon and the Bergen Philharmonic
under Andrew Litton. She also sang Bernstein's
“Jeremiah” Symphony at the Ravinia Festival with
Eschenbach.
Jill Grove’s recordings include Ulrica on a
Chandos recording of Verdi’s A Masked Ball,
Auntie in Peter Grimes on the LSO Live label
under Sir Colin Davis, and the Omniscient Mussel
in Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena with the
American Symphony Orchestra opposite Deborah
Voigt on Teldec. As a member of the Houston
Grand Opera Studio, she sang Tisbe in La
Cenerentola opposite Cecilia Bartoli which was
released by Decca/London.
Jill Grove is the winner of a 2001 Richard
Tucker Foundation Career Grant, a 1999 George
London Foundation Career Grant, a 1997 Sullivan
Foundation Career Grant, a 1996 winner of the
Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a
1996 recipient of a Richard Tucker Foundation
Study Grant and a 1995 recipient of a Richard F.
Gold Career Grant.
Jill Grove was a member of the Merola Program at
San Francisco Opera and the Houston Grand Opera
Studio. She has also sung with the Opera Theater
of St Louis. She attended the Music Academy of
the West, the New England Conservatory and
Stephen F. Austin State University. She
currently resides in San Francisco and studies
with Patricia McCaffrey.
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