Biography

“A soprano voice soared ecstatically…The superb soprano was Darynn Zimmer.” Courier-Post, Spoleto

DARYNN ZIMMER is an established soprano and recording artist.

She has sung with international and American festivals, orchestras and regional operatic companies: Spoleto (USA & Italy); Orquestra Petrobras, Rio de Janeiro; Aspen Opera Theater; American Music Theater Festival; Center for Contemporary Opera; American Opera Projects; Encompass New Opera Theater; Greensboro, Skylight and Tampa operas, performing contemporary (including eight operatic world premieres, to date) and standard repertoire by Bach, Copland, Anthony Davis (Pulitzer Prize 2020), Donizetti, Foss, Philip Glass, Orff, Monteverdi and Somei Satoh, among others. She has appeared as soprano soloist at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, The Morgan Library, and the Asia Society and with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Victoria Bond, Bradley Lubman, Paul Nadler, Anton Coppola, David Randolph, Robert Bass and Ransom Wilson.

In recent appearances, Ms. Zimmer performed three recitals at the Zionskirche, Berlin entitled, That Time of Evening on October 22, 2021, Le Temps des Roses: II on June 19,2021, and Le temps des Roses/Rozenzeit on October 10, 2020.  In 2019 she performed in the North Aegean Music Festival in Greece, and in master classes with Prof. Cheryl Studer. She created the role of Marjorie King, in the world premiere of Big Jim and the Small Time Investors by Eric Salzman at Symphony Space, New York, conducted by Victoria Bond.  As ‘Alberta Kinsey,’ she was directed by the world-renowned director, Robert Wilson, in the world premiere of Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon at Peak Performances. Darynn performed a recital tour in Lithuania with pianist Gabrielius Alekna celebrating Bernstein and Debussy. At Robert Schumann’s birthplace in Zwickau, she sang from a pair of recitals: Szenen aus Goethe’s Faust and Liederkreis, Op. 39 with the von Arnim Trio. As a guest artist of the Frost School of Music, Miami, Ms. Zimmer performed in the complete Spanisches Liederbuch by Hugo Wolf. She sang at the 2016 Bergedorfer Musiktage in Hamburg.  Co-sponsored by Michigan Opera Theater, Ms. Zimmer sang (in Yiddish) the Children’s Songs, Op.13, by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in Chamber Music at the Scarab Club in Detroit. She was part of ‘Ciao, Philadelphia 2015’ festival in “Introducing B Cell City,” a multi-media work in progress. She sang ‘Elizabeth Christine’ in a Center for Contemporary Opera showcase of Scott Wheeler’s opera, The Sorrows of Frederick. Ms. Zimmer curated an operatic double-bill of two signature roles: Mrs. Clancy and Estelle, in Lee Hoiby’s The Italian Lesson and Weisgall’s The Stronger at the Poet’s Den Theater, New York.

Her CD’s Oiseau Bleu and Savage Nightingale, Mona in Daron Hagen’s opera, Bandanna, and the DVD, Colors of the Diaspora with Regina Resnik, are widely available.

Darynn Zimmer is a winner of the Joy in Singing Award, a Metropolitan Opera National Council Eastern Regional finalist, prize winner of the Center for Contemporary Opera Competition, prize winner of the Musician’s Emergency Fund Competition, finalist in the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition and winner of the Five Towns Music and Art Foundation Award.
Ms. Zimmer is an alumna of the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music.

© Darynn Zimmer