Praised for her “brilliant voice” and “intense portrayals," Jennifer Trost has enjoyed a distinguished singing career in a remarkably varied repertoire ranging from the music of the Baroque through 21st Century contemporary classical music.

 

Ms. Trost began her professional singing career as a Resident Artist at the Los Angeles Opera and an Apprentice Artist at the Santa Fe

Opera. From there, she moved to Germany and established an extensive international performing career, with four years as a leading

artist at the Wuppertal Opera and nine years as a soloist at the renowned Bavarian State Opera in roles including The Countess and

Elettra in Mozart’sLe nozze di Figaro and Idomeneo, respectively; Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin; Iphigenie in Gluck’s Iphigenie

en Tauride; Mařenkain Smetana’s The Bartered Bride; Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ortlinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre; Magdalena (a role composed for her) in the world-premiere of Aribert Reimann's Bernarda Albas Haus; and Gertrud in Humperdinck’s

Hänsel und Gretel. She has also performed as a guest artist at the Salzburg Music Festival, the Komische Oper in Berlin, the Opéra de

Paris Garnier, the National Theater in Mannheim, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy, the BBC Proms in London, the Casals Festival

in Puerto Rico, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Munich Radio Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic.

 

Ms. Trost has had the privilege of collaborating with extraordinary conductors both on stage and in the recording studio, including

Roberto Abbado, Bertrand de Billy, Ivor Bolton, Pierre Boulez, Mark Elder, John Fiore, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta,

Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Marcello Viotti, and Simone Young. Under the baton of Maestro Mehta, she performed Ortlinde

on the recording of Wagner’sDie Walküre with Waltraud Meier, Gabriele Schnaut, Mihoko Fujimura, Peter Seiffert, John Tomlinson, Kurt Rydl, and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. With Maestro Bolton and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, she performed the roles of Virtù and Pallade on the recording of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea starring Anna Caterina Antonacci, David Daniels, and Kurt Moll, and, under Maestro Michael Boder,she sang the role of Amalia on the recording of Aribert Reimann’s Das Schloss, featuring Richard Salter, Isoldé Elchlepp, Ute Walther, and the Bayerisches Staatsorcherster.

 

On the concert stage, Ms. Trost has triumphed as a soloist in works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Carcani, Fauré, Handel, Haydn, Kraft, Mendelssohn, Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini, Schnittke, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Verdi, Vivaldi, and Wagner. As a recitalist, she has explored and performed an unusually wide range of repertoire from the canon of traditional song literature, as well as 21st Century contemporary classical song literature. A champion of American music, Ms. Trost was honored to premiere Judith Cloud’s Four Songs of the Heart in 2009. This cycle, based on poems by Kathleen Raine, was written specifically for Ms. Trost and critically acclaimed pianist Arlene Shrut, with whom Ms. Trost frequently collaborates.

 

As a voice teacher and master class technician, Ms. Trost has served on the faculties of the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, Germany, the University of California in Santa Barbara, California, and the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina. She is currently an Associate Professor of Music at The Pennsylvania State University, teaching voice and courses in song and opera literature. Ms. Trost earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education at Albion College in Albion, Michigan; a Master of Music degree in Applied Voice at Michigan State University; and took advanced courses at the doctoral level at the University of Southern California. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the National Opera Association.