Christine Goerke

Distinguished since the beginning of her career by a strong, rich voice, Christine Goerke has become one of the leading dramatic sopranos. She specializes in the music of Wagner and Strauss. Goerke was born on New York's Long Island in 1969 and grew up in the town of Medford, describing herself as a band geek. She credits her high school band director, Peter Randazzo, with inspiring her to pursue a career in music, and she enrolled at the State University of New York at Fredonia as a clarinet student. Deciding to pursue vocal studies instead, Goerke moved to the State University of New York at Stony Brook, graduating with a voice major in 1994. She landed a spot in the Metropolitan Opera's Young Artists Program from 1994 to 1997, and her early career was boosted by appearances at Carnegie Hall (in Britten's War Requiem) and elsewhere under the baton of conductor Rober Shaw. Goerke made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni in the 1997-1998 season, and by the end of the decade, she was appearing at important European houses as well. As her voice thickened beyond the Mozart, Gluck, and Handel roles she had often sung, Goerke experienced something of a vocal crisis and slowed her career for a time. She returned with a new specialty in Wagner and Strauss dramatic roles that are attempted by relatively few singers. At the Metropolitan Opera in 2013, she appeared in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten in the punishing role of the Dyer's Wife. Earning critical plaudits, she was cast as Brünnhilde in the Met's cycle of Wagner's Ring operas in the 2018-2019 season. She has also been a frequent guest at Scotland's Edinburgh Festival in a variety of Wagnerian roles. She has made orchestral appearances with major ensembles in the U.S. and abroad, including the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the BBC Philharmonic at the BBC Proms. In 2021, Goerke assumed the position of associate artistic director at Detroit's Michigan Opera Theatre with a three-year contract. She is married to construction manager James Holloway and has two children. Goerke made a series of choral music recordings on the Telarc label under Shaw's baton in the 1990s, beginning with one devoted to Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes in 1993. She has appeared on various other operatic and choral recordings, including one of Honegger's oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, in 2019.