soprano
Praised for her “sparkle and humor, radiance and magnetism”, hailed for “a voice equally velvety up and down the registers” and singled out for her “imaginative ornamentation”, soprano Laura Heimesis widely regarded as an artist of great versatility, with repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the 21stcentury. She has collaborated with many of the leading figures in early music, including Andrew Lawrence King, Voices of Music, Tempesta di Mare, The King’s Noyse, Paul O’Dette, Chatham Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Brandywine Baroque, ARTEK, and Piffaro – The Renaissance Band, a group with whom she has toured the United States. She has been heard at the Boston, Berkeley, Connecticut, Miami and Indianapolis Early Music Festivals, at the Oregon and Philadelphia Bach Festivals under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, at the Carmel Bach Festival under Bruno Weil and Paul Goodwin, 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. December 2003 marked her Carnegie Hall debut in Handel’s Messiah with the Masterwork Chorus and in 2011 appeared in an acclaimed staged production of the same work with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Maestro Honeck.
Highlights of the 2015-16 season will include Bach’s St. John Passion with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem (Bethlehem, PA), Cantata 140 with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado (Denver, Boulder, CO), Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Chatham Baroque (Pittsburgh, PA), William Shield’s Rosina with Brandywine Baroque (Wilmington and Rehoboth, DE), a concert of Schütz as well as master classes at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and a rarely heard performance of the Intermedii from La Pellegrina for the 1589 Florentine wedding of Ferdinand I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany with ARTEK.
Repeat engagements with New York State Baroque and Pegasus Early Music will bring Ms. Heimes to upstate NY twice this season. The first program entitled Harmony of the Spheres – An exploration of the Sister Arts of Music and Astronomy explores music and the planets by 16th and 17th century composers. The second concert, entitled A Night at the Baroque Opera, with countertenor José Lemos, will be a delightful evening of some of the most beloved and tuneful opera aria and duets from the from baroque opera.
Her most recent recordings include Judith and other Sacred Canatas by René Drouard de Bousset, On The Just Treatment of Licentious Men (modern art songs by Peter Flint), Cantatas Françoises (music of Jacquet de la Guerre and Clérambault), Handel Duets and Trios; Oh! the Sweet Delights of Love: the songs of Purcell with Brandywine Baroque; The Lass with the Delicate Air: English Songs from the London Pleasure Gardens; The Jane Austen Songbook with Julianne Baird; and Caldara’s Il Giuoco del Quadriglio with Julianne Baird and the Queen’s Chamber Band conducted by Stephen Altop. A CD of the Biblical cantatas of Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre with Julianne Baird is in progress.
A native of Rochester NY, Ms. Heimes has recorded for Dorian, Pro Gloria Musicae, Plectra Music, Sonabilis, Albany, Avian and Zefiro records.