Solène Le Van
Solène Le Van is a French-American lyric coloratura who has performed extensively from an early age. She has been recognized as a “vocal phenomenon” (Kim Josephson), and her artistic activities have taken her from France and Sweden to Japan and North America.
In 2019, Ms. Le Van received the American Prize’s Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music in her interpretation of Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915 with the Princeton University Orchestra. Maestro David Katz praised her “technical (…) and emotional tour de force,” describing her as “an artist with a clear understanding of the text and situation, able to convey the atmosphere of a certain sense of longing and loss of innocence (…) not usual”. For the 2020 summer season, Me. Le Van has been invited by Will Crutchfield to join Teatro Nuovo as a Studio Artist. This year, she performed excerpts from Lucia di Lammermoor and Manon with the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra at the Redlands Bowl. Her rendition of arias from Lucia earned her an Opera Buffs Grant from Maestro Brent McMunn for “demonstrated talent and potential for a career in opera”. Recently, conductor and composer José Serebrier selected her to sing the soprano solo for the premiere recording of his symphonic work “Colores Magicos” on the basis of her “perfect singing and musicianship, which makes her destined for a very brilliant career”. The recording with the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra of Spain under his direction will be released next year under Peer Music Records.
In 2018, Ms. Le Van sang as a soprano soloist in Handel’s Dixit Dominus under the baton of Gabriel Crouch. Under the auspices of the American Handel Society, John Butt invited her to perform the soprano arias in the American premiere of the 1741 Dublin version of Handel’s Messiah. Other recent performances have included scenes in concert staging at the Munson-Williams Proctor Art Institute as Violetta Valery and Maria Boccanegra opposite Jon Fredric West, as well as a recital appearance as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) with Galina Ivannikova.