A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson began her musical career as a violist. She was a consummate recitalist and concert singer and a riveting operatic performer with a repertoire that ranged from the Baroque to the contemporary. On the opera stage she excelled in rôles as diverse as Ottavia (Monteverdi), Ariodante (Handel), Sesto (Mozart), Carmen (Bizet), Myrtle Wilson (Harbison) and Didon (Berlioz).

Recognised by Musical America as the 2001 Vocalist of the Year, she performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis, and the world première of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Opera highlights included the Peter Sellars production of Handel’s Theodora, Les Troyens and The Great Gatsby at the Metropolitan Opera, La clemenza di Tito and the title rôle in Xerxes for the New York City Opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and at the San Francisco Opera, the world première of John Adams’ El Niño at the Châtelet in Paris and in San Francisco, and Peter Lieberson’s Ashoka’s Dream for the Santa Fe Opera.

Concert highlights included Elgar’s The Music Makers at the first night of the BBC Proms and performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, concerts and a recording with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas, the Berlin Philharmonic under Kent Nagano, the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the Orchestra of St Luke’s with Sir Charles Mackerras. Recital appearances took her to Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and on a North American recital tour with Peter Serkin to Tanglewood, Boston, and Carnegie Hall, New York. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson passed away in July 2006.