Known for her “serenely captivating” operatic presence “and disarming intimacy,” (NY Times), the versatile soprano Abigail Fischer has made a vibrant career starring in contemporary operas such as Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar and Du Yun’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone, as well as in more classic operas such as the title roles in Carmen and Cenerentola, with companies such as Los Angeles Opera, Chautauqua Opera and Cincinnati Opera. Abigail is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music (MM), Vassar College (BA), Lorenzo di Medici in Florence, Italy (Certificate in Italian language and literature), is a sound meditation practitioner, transformational voice coach, and holds Mindful Sounding circles as a way to connect to the deeper truths. She is dedicated to awakening conscious awareness through practice and artform, and through multi-media collaborations with her husband Jason Slayden in their duo belhaven.
Abigail has performed Handel’s Messiah with Kansas City Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Rhode Island Symphony, Virginia Symphony, and in other repertoire with the Columbus Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. As an early music performer, she has worked with the American Bach Soloists, Rebel Baroque, Early Music New York, Boston Baroque and Mercury Houston. In 2017 Ms. Fischer made her Italian stage debut in Bolzano, Italy in Toshio Hosakawa’s The Raven, a setting of the Edgar Allan Poe text. She has sung the title role in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia with Opera Memphis, Testo in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento with Gotham Chamber Opera, and premiered Lee Hoiby’s This is the Rill Speaking with American Opera Projects.
Trained as a cellist, Ms. Fischer has worked often also as a vocal chamber musician, from the Marlboro Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest, to St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. She has premiered Elliott Carter’s Mad Regales and Bernard Rands’ Walcott Songs at the Tanglewood Music Festival, numerous John Zorn chamber works all over the world including the Lincoln Center Festival, and Nico Muhly’s Elements of Style, also at Lincoln Center.