Soprano Lucy Shelton began her musical training with the piano and flute. After graduation from Pomona College in her native California, she studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston and with the distinguished mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani at the Aspen Music School. The winner of two Naumburg Awards, with a repertoire ranging from Bach to Babbitt, Shelton has appeared in recital, opera, chamber music, and as an orchestral soloist. But it is as a leading interpreter of new music that she has earned international acclaim. She has sung the premieres of more than 100 works by such composers as Elliott Carter, Oliver Knussen, Alexander Goehr, David Del Tredici, Ned Rorem, Stephen Albert, Joseph Schwantner, Gérard Grisey, and Lewis Spratlan.
She also performs her standard repertoire in venues across the United States and in Europe, including Berio’s Folk Songs, Babbitt’s Philomel, Knussen’s Hums and Songs of Winnie the Pooh, Foss’s Time Cycle, Shostakovich’s Romantic Suite, and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. Among her many recordings, she earned a Grammy nomination (with the Enso Quartet) for the Naxos release of Ginastera’s string quartets.
Shelton has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the Cleveland Institute, and the New England Conservatory. She is currently on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center and Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program, and also teaches privately in New York City.
(Updated: 3/14/2019)
