“one of the finest voices of her generation”
“acrobatically as well as vocally brilliant”
“a tiny woman with a fabulous voice”
Her voice described by critics as resplendent, sweet-toned, brilliant, and glorious,
Soprano Amanda Boyd has been hailed one of Britain’s “rising stars.” Ms. Boyd trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she won the Susan Longfield prize and was supported by the Countess of Munster Trust. She also studied at the National Opera Studio in London, where she was supported by Friends of Covent Garden and the Foundation for Sports and the Arts. Ms. Boyd was coached and supported by Elizabeth Vaughan and Dame Janet Baker throughout her training.
Most recently, Amanda appeared as Constance Fletcher in Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All (voted one of 2017's top 10 best classical music performances by the New York Times), under the direction of R. B. Schlather at Hudson Hall. Amanda is also known for the title role in the film Lucia (based on Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor). Other operatic roles include: La Contessa (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro) for the New Opera Festival in Rome, Italy; Ginevra (Handel’s Ariodante) for the Covent Garden Festival; Adina (Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore) for Bel Canto UK and the Cambridge Opera Players; Martha (Flotow’s Martha) for Bel Canto UK; Lucia (Britten’s The Rape Of Lucretia) for Music Theatre Wales at the Cheltenham and Buxton Festivals; Romilda (Handel’s Xerxes) with The Early Opera Company; Gretel (Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel); Despina (Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte) for The London Opera Players; Cunegonde and Maria (Bernstein’s Candide and West Side Story) with the Columbia Festival Orchestra, NY; Dido (Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas) with Broad Street Players, at PS21, Chatham NY; Cleopatra (Handel’s Giulio Cesare) with Upstate Chamber Opera, Albany, NY.
Ms. Boyd’s performances of contemporary works have included playing the lead role of Maeve in the world premiere of Deirdre Gribbin’s Hey! Persephone for the Almeida and Aldeburgh Festivals; the role of Duende in the world premiere of Simon Holt’s A Nightingale’s To Blame for Opera North UK; and Edward Barnes’ one-woman opera The Vagabond Queen for Hudson Chamber Opera, Hudson, NY. Amanda headlined and toured with the band, The Art of Noise, for their album The Seduction of Claude Debussy, in the USA and UK.
Amanda’s regular solo concert appearances include Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with Sir Simon Rattle; Poulenc’s Gloria with Sir David Willcocks; Britten folksong arrangements with David Allen Miller and the Albany Symphony Orchestra and most recently, Britten’s Les Illuminations with David Smith and the Broad Street Orchestra at the Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook NY. Under BoydSong, Amanda continues to keep the art song repertoire alive, regularly performing recitals with piano and chamber groups in concert halls, private homes, and galleries both in the United States and Europe.
Amanda lives on an apple orchard in Upstate New York with her husband and two sons.
“Boyd’s fine soprano soars above some dazzling imagery””
“Boyd is a tiny woman with a fabulous voice.”
“The singing – and the stage presence – which really had me on the edge of my seat came from the bright-eyed, keen-eared soprano of Amanda Boyd who, miraculously, presented both a Euridice of melting and almost painful eloquence, and a Papagena of raucous charm.”
“Don’t you know opera is sexy nowadays?...And as if to prove a point, step forward soprano Amanda Boyd. One of the finest voices of her generation.”
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“If opera at the movies makes you squirm, hold on. It can be done, as Amanda Boyd, soprano and actress, proves...”
Listen
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Amanda Boyd and Mark Holland
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Amanda Boyd and Neil MacDonald
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Amanda Boyd and Neil MacDonald
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Amanda Boyd