Laura Heimes, soprano

Praised for her “sumptuous tone and shimmering clarity” and hailed for "a voice equally velvety up and down the registers", soprano Laura Heimes is widely regarded as an artist of great versatility, with repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century.   She has collaborated with many of the leading figures in early music, including Andrew Lawrence King, Julianne Baird, The King’s Noyse, Paul O’Dette, Chatham Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, The New York Collegium, The Publick Musick, Brandywine Baroque, Trinity Consort, and Piffaro – The Renaissance Band, a group with whom she has toured the United States. Additionally, Ms. Heimes is a member of Fuma Sacra, the early music vocal ensemble-in-residence at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.  She has been heard at the Boston and Connecticut Early Music Festivals, at the Oregon and Philadelphia Bach Festivals under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, and in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil in concerts of Bach and Handel.   With the Philadelphia Orchestra she appeared as Mrs. Nordstrom in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.  Last December marked her Carnegie Hall debut in Handel's Messiah with the Masterwork Chorus.

Highlights of the 2004-05 season will include a program of English music with Chatham Baroque (Pittsburgh, PA) as well as a repeat this program at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC); the role of Cupid in Blow's Venus and Adonis, and Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Brandywine Baroque (Wilmington, DE), a program of consort music with the Empire Viols (New York, NY); Monteverdi Vespers with the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia; music of Purcell and Blow with Tempeste di Mare (Philadelphia, PA); Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light with Mendelssohn Club (Philadelphia, PA); Bach's B Minor Mass and the Handel Gloria with the Trinity Consort (Portland, OR); Acis and Galatea with New York State Baroque (Ithaca, NY);  Handel’s Xerxes with the Connecticut Early Music Festival (New London, CT)  as well as repeat performances of the B Minor Mass with New York State Baroque and the Masterwork Chorus (Westfield, NJ). New Year's Eve will be spent with the Reading Symphony (Reading, PA) in an evening of Viennese favorites.

2005-06 will include Monteverdi and D’India with the Magnificat Ensemble (San Francisco), a program of Carissimi motets at the 92nd Street Y (New York), a US Tour with Piffaro- The Renaissance Band, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliette with the Ridgefield Symphony (Ridgefield, CT), and Mozart’s C Minor Mass (Philadelphia, PA).

Repeat engagements with Brandywine Baroque, New York Collegium, Le Triomphe de l'Amour will include programs of English music and French motets, as well as cantatas and motets by Bach, Handel, Rameau, Clérambault, Hasse and Monteverdi.

Ms. Heimes’ recordings include:  the songs of Purcell with Brandywine Baroque (Fall 2005 release); 17th and 18th Century Parlor Songs (not yet released); The Jane Austen Songbook with Julianne Baird (November 2004 release), and Caldara's Il Giuoco del Quadriglio with Julianne Baird and the Queen's Chamber Band conducted by Stephen Altop (September 2004 release).

A native of Rochester NY, she holds Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and Voice Performance from Temple University.  She has recorded for Dorian, Pro Gloria Musicae, Plectra Music, Sonabilis, and Albany records. She teaches voice at Swarthmore College.