Nicole Heaston

Nicole Heaston is an American soprano.

She was raised in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, and grew up listening to Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Gladys Knight, as well as choral and classical music in church.[1] She attended Kenwood Academy,[2] where her choir teacher Lena McLin encouraged her to pursue opera, pointing to William Warfield, Leontyne Price, and Shirley Verrett as earlier examples of Black opera singers.[3] Heaston studied music at the University of Akron and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.[3] Subsequently, she started an apprenticeship with the Houston Grand Opera, and debuted in a production of Romeo and Juliet.[2]

Heaston collaborated with conductor Marc Minkowski, including in a 1999 film version of Händel's Messiah directed by William Klein.[4] She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni.[2] She has also sung for the Norwegian National Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera.[5] She has sung the role of the Countess in the Marriage of Figaro in the Boston Lyric Opera and the San Francisco Opera.[5][6]

She sang the lead role in The Listeners in its world premiere with the Norwegian National Opera in 2022,[7] and in its Chicago premiere at the Lyric Opera in 2025.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Underwood, Keith L. (March 4, 2026). "Nicole Heaston, Black Soprano, on Opera, Identity and Singing with the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles". Los Angeles Sentinel.
  2. 1 2 3 Miko, Jennifer (August 2019). "Take Note of Renowned Katy Opera Singer Nicole Heaston Lane". Katy Magazine.
  3. 1 2 Heaston, Nicole (February 1, 2025). "Do the Work, Evolve, and Most of All, Mind Your Business" (Interview). Interviewed by McKeever, Eric.
  4. ↑ "Messiah". Timeout. September 10, 2012.
  5. 1 2 Beretto, Holly (October 19, 2018). "For HGO's 'La bohème,' A Familiar Face for a Familiar Opera". Houstonia Magazine.
  6. ↑ Feher, Peter. "A New Countess for SF Opera's Figaro". San Francisco Classical Voice.
  7. ↑ "The Listeners". Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  8. ↑ Kueppers, Courtney (March 25, 2025). "'The Listeners' casts a soprano from Chicago in the lead of its convention-shattering story". WBEZ. Archived from the original on March 28, 2025.
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