Lockhart, Arietha

She is a coloratura soprano and teacher who studied for her degrees at the University of Alabama.

She has worked for many years with the various ensembles created by the late conductor Robert Shaw. With these ensembles, which include the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, The Robert Shaw Festival Singers and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus, she spent summers in France at the Robert Shaw Choral Institute, took part in the “Christmas with Robert Shaw” concerts, gave concerts throughout America and in Europe, appeared at Carnegie Hall and sang the role of the white butterfly at the Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Other orchestras and choirs she has sung with include the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, the Atlanta Bach Choir, the Augusta Choral Society, the Cherokee Chorale, Collegium Vocale, Impromptu, Masterworks Chorale, Michael O’Neal Singers and the Montgomery Symphony and in 1999 she was awarded a fellowship for the Aspen School of Music Opera Theatre.

Regularly taking part in competitions since the 1990s she has been a prizewinner at events such as the 1995 Leontyne Price Vocal Arts Competition, the 1997 Oratorio Society of New York Competition, the 2001 Center for Contemporary Opera International Competition and the 2004 Classical Singer Competition. Her first prizes were won at the Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria, the National Association of Teachers of Singing Association Artists Awards in 1995, the Friedrich Shorr Memorial Prize in Voice in 2000, the National Opera Association Competition’s Legacy Award in 2001 and the Licia Albanese-Pucinni Foundation also gave her an Encouragement Award.

Her recordings are many and she has appeared as a soloist/chorus member on albums such as A Capella and Ralph Vaughan Williams: Mass in G Minor by the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus, Haydn: Highlights from the Creation by the Michael O’Neal Singers, Songs of Angels: Christmas Hymns & Carols by the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers and Evocation of the Spirit by the Robert Shaw Festival Singers.

She has performed at the world premiere of “The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity” by Curtis Bryant and Stephen Bluestone and on works such as Bach’s Wachet Auf, Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony, Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Brahms’ Requiem, Aaron Copeland’s “Sing Ye Praises”, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, Mozart’s Requiem and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Donna Nobis Pacem.

She continued to keep up a busy performance schedule and has been a member of Southern Artistry.org and the Georgia Council for the Arts touring roster.

In the field of musical education she has taught elementary-level music in DeKalb County.

Robert Shaw Chamber Singers recordings
Angels We Have Heard on High (Traditional French/James Chadwick/Edward Shippen Barnes )
Telarc 80377 (CD: Songs of Angels: Christmas Hymns & Carols)
Conductor – Robert Shaw

Sources:

Lockhart, Arietha

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