The American mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich began her professional career at the Arena di Verona, where in 2000 she made her début as Preziosilla in La forza del destino and in the following season sang Fenena in Nabucco. In 2001 Franco Zeffirelli chose her for Amneris in his production of Aida, presented in Busseto on the centenary of Verdi’s death and subsequently seen in Modena, Rome, Naples, Florence, Milan, Piacenza, and Ravenna. Since then Kate Aldrich has appeared in opera houses around the world, including with the Los Angeles Opera in the world première of Deborah Drattel’s Nicholas and Alexandra under Mstislav Rostropovich and as Idamante (Idomeneo). She has been a guest artist with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the New York City Opera, and in Montreal. As winner of the Vidda Award she was presented by the OONY in a solo recital in Weill Recital Hall in 2006. During the 2006/07 season Kate Aldrich sang her first Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) in the Prague National Theater and made her San Francisco Opera début as Carmen and sang Maddalena (Rigoletto) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In Lisbon she sang her first Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri, in Montpellier she was heard in Eine florentinische Tragödie by Zemlinsky, and in Tokyo as Dulcinée.