Caroline Olsen, mezzo
Mezzo-soprano Caroline Olsen, hailed for her “warm, earth-toned resonance,” (Boston Classical Review), brings her unique vocalism to many styles of music at home and abroad. Ms. Olsen has performed at venues including New York City’s David Geffen Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. She is quickly gaining a reputation as a sensitive interpreter of Baroque music, concert masterworks, opera, and art song alike.
Recently, Ms. Olsen made her New York City solo debut in Handel’s Messiah with the Manhattan Choral Ensemble. Her 2019-2020 performance calendar also includes Thomas Oboe Lee’s Missa Pro Defunctis for chamber orchestra and soloists (premier), a fully staged production of Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum, and the Bach Festival at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. Other recent solo engagements include Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Mozart’s Requiem with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Duruflé’s Requiem with The Thirteen, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël with the Newburyport Choral Society, Distler’s Die Weihnachtsgeschichte with Boston Cecilia, Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Musica Sacra, and Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with Harvard Pro Musica.
The many new works in Ms. Olsen’s repertoire include world premiers by Thomas Oboe Lee, Thomas Weaver, Adria Stolk, and Rośsa Crean. Committed to performing works by women composers and poets, Ms. Olsen has designed recital programs featuring the works of Alma Schindler Mahler and Clara Schumann, among others, and lyrics from Emily Dickinson, Charlotte Bronte, and several First Ladies of the United States. An avid recitalist, Ms. Olsen has performed the gamut of art song styles, and specializes in late Romantic German Lieder, French chanson, and Scandinavian art song.
A skilled collaborative musician, Ms. Olsen has performed with professional choral ensembles including the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston, MA), The Thirteen (Washington, DC), the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus (Eugene, OR), the Advent Choir (Boston, MA), Music at Emmanuel (Boston, MA), and JSB Ensemble (Stuttgart, Germany).
Caroline Olsen was born and raised in California, and received extensive music training from a young age in the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, the award-winning choirs of Mira Costa High School, and private piano and voice lessons. She attended the prestigious Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artist Vocal Program at age 16, where she met important faculty under whom she would go onto study at Boston University. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and Music Education from the College of Fine Arts at BU. Ms. Olsen taught private music lessons for 5 years in the Greater Boston Area, and when not onstage she now teaches adult English learners. www.CarolineOlsen.com