Michèle Crider is one of today’s preeminent dramatic sopranos of her generation. She has made her mark on both the operatic and concert stages of the world in a remarkably wide repertoire. 

Miss Crider studied voice at the University of Iowa. She won the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions twice. After which she continued her studies in the studio of the Zurich Opera House.  Miss Crider was a finalist in the Luciano Pavarotti competition and was First Prize-winner at the Geneva International Music Competition. This prize directly led to her engagement as Leonora in Il trovatore in Dortmund and to her participation in the International Grand Prix, which she then won.

Miss Crider performs regularly in the world’s great opera houses, including the Royal Opera House Convent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera in New York, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, the Staatsoper Berlin, the State Opera Houses in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Arena di Verona, Rome, Opéra de Paris Bastille, Zurich, the Liceu in Barcelona and Teatro Real in Madrid. 

Also enjoying a successful concert career, Miss Crider appears regularly at the Salzburg Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orange, Ravenna and Edinburgh Festivals, at the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Savonlinna Festival, in the Salle Pleyel and Barbican Hall in London with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne.

Miss Crider made her American debut with a new production of Aida in San Diego in 1996. Debuts at the San Francisco Opera as Aida and the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Madama Butterfly followed.

Collaborating with today’s greatest conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Nello Santi, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Semyon Bychkov, Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Chailly and Sir Colin Davis, Miss Crider’s repertoire includes the roles of Leonora in Il trovatore and La forza del destino, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Elvira in Ernani, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, the title roles of Luisa Miller, Aida, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Norma, Manon Lescaut, La Gioconda, Odabella in Atilla, Desdemona in Otello Lucrezia in I due Foscari, Giselda in I Lombardi, Imogene in Il pirata, Margherita/Elena in Mefistofele und Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana..

Highlights of most recent seasons have included Tosca for the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Vienna State Opera, Verdi’s Messa da requiem with the Toronto Symphony and Istanbul Philharmonic, Britten’s War Requiem with the Hamburg Symphony, Verdi’s Messa da requiem in Malta, a gala performance of Tosca with Neil Shicoff & Juan Pons at the Liceu in Barcelona, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Mineria Festival in Mexico City, Elvira in Ernani for the Israeli Opera, and concerts in the Cuvilliés Theater in Munich, and throughout Austria with the Vienna Volksoper Orchestra.   Future engagements include Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Toyko Philharmonic in Suntory Hall, Desdenoma in Otello in concert with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Tosca for the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv as well as on tour to Weisbaden, Leonora in Il trovatore and Desdemona in Otello, Elisabeth in Don Carlo and AIDA for Classic Open Air in Solothurn, and Vier letzte Lieder in Turkey, Concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.