The 2009 Carmel Bach Festival Vocal Master Class 

Abigail Nims
Mezzo-Soprano

Tivoli, NY

email: abigailnims@hotmail.com

A rapidly rising young mezzo-soprano, Abigail Nims' 2008-09 season includes her return to Opera Delaware to sing Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, a role which she also sings with Boston Youth Orchestra; Veruca Salt in the workshop premiere of Peter Ash's The Golden Ticket; soloist with the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra in Messiah; and with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Crumb's Night of the Four Moons.

In summer of 2009 she joins the Carmel Bach Festival as an Adams Fellow and sings Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Princeton Festival; and in 2009-10, she performs in recital at Ohio Wesleyan University and at Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City.

Ms. Nims' engagements for 2007-2008 included her debut with New York City's Gotham Chamber Opera in Maria de Buenos Aires and as Zefka in a staged version of Janá?ek's The Diary of One Who Disappeared. She appeared as soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at Teatro Municipal de Santiago (Chile), as Meg in Little Women with Opera Delaware, and in recital to sing a song cycle by Martin Bresnick at Yale University. Other concert engagements included Mozart's Vespare solennes de confessore and Michael Haydn's Requiem with the Masterwork Chorus, Messiah with the New Choral Society, and Mendelssohn's Elijah with Cappella Cantorum of Connecticut.

Ms. Nims also joined the roster of New York City Opera for the 2007-08 season, and in summer of 2008 she returned to Santa Fe Opera. Other recent operatic appearances include Tessa in The Gondoliers with Opera North, Dido in Dido and Aeneas with the Connecticut Chamber Orchestra, and Beatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict, Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Jo in Little Women with Westminster Opera Theatre. She completed her studies with the Yale Opera Program, where she performed as Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, roles which she reprised professionally with Santa Fe Opera and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, respectively. Also for the Yale Opera Program, she performed the role of Popova in William Walton's The Bear.

Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Nims has performed with notable orchestras and at festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the New Jersey Bach Festival, and the Rochester Chamber Orchestra. Among her concert engagements are performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 3; Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel by György Ligeti; Handel's Messiah; Magnificat settings by J. S. Bach and Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka; the Duruflé Requiem; and J.C.F. Bach's solo cantata, Ach, dass ich Wassers g'nug hätte.

Ms. Nims was awarded second prize in the 2007 Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition. She also received an honorable mention in the 2006 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Competition and was a finalist in both the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation and the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield competitions.

Abigail Nims holds degrees from Yale School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and Ohio Wesleyan University. She was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera in 2007 and a Young Artist with Opera North in 2005. Additionally, she has participated in the Spoleto Festival USA, AIMS in Graz (Austria), the Austrian-American Mozart Academy, and the Austria-Illinois Exchange Program in Vienna.