Nell Snaidas, soprano

Coloratura-soprano Nell Snaidas is hailed as a "first class actress" and "impressive young singer" (Opera Monthly and Theater Week) who possesses a voice that has been praised as being both “sultry”(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and “crystalline”(Milwaukee Journal),   “powerful” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “triumphantly lilting”(Classical CD Review) as well as “remarkably pure with glints of rich sensuality (Vancouver Sun).  Often singled out for her dramatic interpretations, The New York Times described her as having “a voice that can languish, cajole, laugh and pout” while the Cleveland Plain Dealer called her a “model of luminous timbre and dramatic intensity” who has the ability to “embellish melodies with virtuosity and project lyrics like a storyteller”.
 
A graduate of the Mannes College of Music Nell began her professional career while still in school, singing leading roles in zarzuelas at New York City’s  Repertorio Español. Now an accomplished interpreter of Baroque Music, her renditions of the music of the Italy and Spain have taken her all over Europe and North America, where she has been a featured soloist in numerous festivals, operas and concert halls including Lincoln Center Summerfest, Alice Tully, Town Hall, Regensburg Tage/Alter Musik Fest, Internacional Festival de la Zarzuela in Mexico, and L’Internazionale  Festivale di Scarlatti in Sicily. Operatic performances include “Lisetta” in Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, “Despina” in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Caramoor with the Orchestra of St. Luke and “Valletto” in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea with Festival Vancouver under the direction of Stephen Stubbs/Paul O’Dette.
 
Favorite projects include creating the role "Princess Olga" in the world-premiere of the Boston Early Music Festival’s production of the Baroque opera Boris Goudenow at the Cutler Majestic Theater and Tanglewood, giving recitals throughout Italy of Italian and Spanish Baroque music with Ex Umbris, touring Canterine Romane with lutenist Paul O’Dette and Tragicomedia, singing John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and sharing the bill with The Buena Vista Social Club on a tour of Mexico with her own all-female Baroque ensemble.
 
Nell Snaidas starred internationally as "Christine" in The Phantom of the Opera, has been seen on Broadway in Hair and On the 20thCentury and can be heard in Mel Brooks' movie-musical, The Producers. Her voice is also featured several Emmy-Nominated movie sountracks for the Hallmark channel.
 
This season, under the baton of Gerard Schwartz, she will be returning as a soloist to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performing Euridice /La Musica in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Apollo’s Fire and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with Orchestra. Ms. Snaidas has recorded for Sony Classical, Dorian, and Sefarad, as well as the Grammy-nominated cast album of Hair on Razor & Tie, and various selections of Operetta on Naxos with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Recently she was featured on CBC as one of the leading interpreters of Spanish Renaissance/Sephardic song.