Kara Dugan, mezzo-soprano
Meet Kara
Kara Sainz Dugan first appeared on From the Top Show 211 and has also appeared on Highlight Show 27 and Show 274.
Mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan has been praised by The New York Times for her “vocal warmth and rich character.” Recent highlights include her Los Angeles Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall debuts with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting his new work, Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind with poetry by Carl Sandburg. Ms. Dugan’s work with living composers also includes performances in the roles of Amadora and Stelladora in John Musto’s opera Bastianello for Festival Napa Valley, and a final workshop performance as Mrs. Van Buren in Ricky Ian Gordon’s new opera, Intimate Apparel commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater. Additional orchestral work includes three international tours with Juilliard415 and conductors Ton Koopman, Masaaki Suzuki, and Nicholas McGegan, culminating in a performance as the Soprano II soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor. Ms. Dugan also enjoys recital work with her husband, pianist Peter Dugan. The husband and wife duo perform together at festivals throughout the United States. Recent guest artist appearances include the Joye in Aiken Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival, and Moab Music Festival. In her 2020-2021 season she will make her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. Ms. Dugan has sung with the San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Steans Institute, Boston Early Music Festival, Wolf Trap Opera, Alice Tully Hall, and Aspen Music Festival. Ms. Dugan earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School.
Program bio from Show 274:
Kara Sainz (mezzo-soprano) first appeared on From the Top as a soloist in 2010. Originally from Temecula, California, she is a rising fourth year undergraduate student at The Juilliard School, where she is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship and a student of Edith Bers. Kara was awarded the ASCAP foundation’s 2010 Lieber and Stoller Scholarship as well as a Grand-Prize Finalist Award in the coveted Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards in 2008, for which she performed in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. This summer Ms. Sainz will return to Aspen Summer Music Festival to perform the role of La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.
Listen to Kara
Highlight Show 27
Er, der Herrlichste von allen, from Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 by Robert Schumann
Show 274, San Marcos, TX
Three Poems to Sing for Voice and Piano: I. There Was an Old Person (Edward Lear), II. The Eagle (Lord Alfred Tennyson), and III. How Doth the Little Crocodile (Lewis Carroll) by composer and Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist J.P. Redmond
Show 211, Santa Barbara, CA
"Voi Che Sapete" from The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
