Lauren Snouffer

Recognized for her unique artistic curiosity in world-class performances spanning the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Johann Adolph Hasse through to Missy Mazzoli and George Benjamin, American Lauren Snouffer is celebrated as one of the most versatile and respected sopranos on the international stage. She makes her Music of the Baroque debut on September 18 and 19 as Iphis in Handel's Jephtha.

During the 2021-22 season, Lauren Snouffer makes her debut at the Opéra national du Rhin in the lead role of The Snow Queen by Hans Abrahamsen, in a new production directed by James Bonas and Grégoire Pont under the baton of Robert Houssart. She returns to Houston Grand Opera for a production by Francesca Zambello of Dialogues des Carmélites conducted by Patrick Summers and bows in no less than two new productions with the Opernhaus Zürich: she is the title role in the world premiere of Girl with a Pearl Earring by composer Stefan Wirth and she performs Argene in Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade in a new production conducted by Ottavio Dantone. The soprano joins The Dallas Opera for Opera Galas and concertizes with Patrick Dupré Quigley and Seraphic Fire in tour performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. She returns to Mercury Chamber Orchestra for a program of Vivaldi and Handel and appears with Ars Lyrica Houston in fully-staged performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

Operatic performances on leading international stages have fortified Lauren Snouffer's place as one of the eminent interpreters of contemporary music; she assayed the title role of Berg’s Lulu in a new production at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago conducted by Pedro-Pablo Prudencio and directed by Mariame Clément, and returned to Houston Grand Opera for the world premieres of The Phoenix by composer Tarik O’Regan and librettist John Caird and The House Without a Christmas Tree by Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek. Other past appearances include Handel’s Serse for the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe directed by Max Emanuel Cencic and conducted by Georg Petrou and the role of Magnolia Hawks in Francesca Zambello’s production of Show Boat for The Glimmerglass Festival.

Lauren Snouffer’s concert schedule has yielded collaborations with many of the world’s most distinguished conductors and orchestras including numerous performances with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra, Cristian Macelaru and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Krzysztof Urbanski and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Edo de Waart and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Labadie and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Markus Stenz and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, with Patrick Dupré Quigley and the San Francisco Symphony, Harry Christophers of the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, and with Marin Alsop and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.

Past seasons include Houston Grand Opera performances of Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Harry Bicket in a production by Michael Grandage as well as presentations of Carousel, Show Boat, The Rape of Lucretia, and L’italiana in Algeri; Lyric Opera of Chicago performances of Rusalka, La clemenza di Tito, and a new production of Orphée et Eurydice directed and choreographed by John Neumeier under the baton of Harry Bicket; a Seattle Opera debut as La Comtesse Adèle in Rossini’s Le comte Ory conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti; Die Zauberflöte at Seattle Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City; a new Christopher Alden production of Handel’s Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan; and Max Emanuel Cencic’s new production of Hasse’s Siroe at the Opéra Royal de Versailles, with additional performances in Budapest and Vienna.

Closely associated with George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, Lauren Snouffer has sung under the composer’s baton at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music and with the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Opera Philadelphia. She has performed Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, presented the world premiere of Andrew Norman’s A Trip to the Moon with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and joined Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in the title role of HK Gruber’s Gloria – A Pig Tale in a production staged by Doug Fitch.

A Grammy Award-nominated artist, Lauren Snouffer’s impactful discography includes Hasse’s Siroe and Handel’s Ottone with George Petrou for Decca, Gottschalk’s Requiem for the Living with Vladimir Lande on Novona Records, Grantham’s La cancíon desesperada conducted by Craig Hella Johnson on Harmonia Mundi, and Feldman’s The Rothko Chapel with Steven Schick for ECM.

An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Lauren Snouffer also studied at Rice University and The Juilliard School.