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Born and educated in Kansas, the dynamic and engaging mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has soared to international prominence in operas by Rossini, Handel, and Mozart, as well as in high-profile world premieres. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2005, and her growing discography has earned accolades far and wide. DiDonato's Wigmore Hall recital disc was a Gramophone 'Editor’s Choice,' while The Deepest Desire, her first solo disc, was awarded France’s 'Diapason d’Or de l’année.'

Indeed, over the years DiDonato has racked up the honours including the Met’s Beverly Sills Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year, not to mention the Richard Tucker Award, given to a single American singer annually. She has also earned second place in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, and prizes from the George London Foundation, the ARIA Award Foundation, and the Sullivan Musical Foundation.

This month DiDonato makes her company debut with the Los Angeles Opera in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in November, and kicks off 2010 in Spain with a recital tour of Italian love songs, which will also be performed in Brussels and twice at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Joyce DiDonato’s new album Rossini: Colbran, The Muse is out now on Virgin Classics.

Photo by Sheila Rock.