Possessing a voice praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for its “effortless precision and tonal luster,” Jessica Rivera is established as one of the most creatively inspired vocal artists before the public today. The intelligence, dimension, and spirituality with which she infuses her performances on the great international concert and opera stages has garnered Ms. Rivera unique artistic collaborations with many of today’s most celebrated composers including John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Nico Muhly, and has brought her together in collaboration with such esteemed conductors as Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Ms. Rivera was heralded in the world premiere of John Adams’s newest opera, A Flowering Tree, singing the role of Kumudha, in a production directed by Peter Sellars as part of the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. Since then, she has performed A Flowering Tree for her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle and, under the composer’s baton, with the Cincinnati Opera, San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center, and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre. The London performances were recorded and are  commercially available on the Nonesuch Records label.

The artist made her European operatic debut as Kitty Oppenheimer in Peter Sellars’s acclaimed production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic with the Netherlands Opera, a role that also served for her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and she joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for its new production of Doctor Atomic under the direction of Alan Gilbert. She gave concert performances of Doctor Atomic with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and her portrayal of Kitty Oppenheimer was captured in Amsterdam and is commercially available on DVD on the BBC/Opus Arte label.

Ms. Rivera’s 2012-13 season features the role of Pat Nixon in John Adams’s Nixon in China as part of a multi-city European tour with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.   A frequent guest soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the soprano performs a program of Grieg, Sibelius, and Rachmaninoff under the baton of Music Director Robert Spano and reprises her acclaimed interpretation of John Adams’s El Niño with the Vancouver Bach Choir.  Ms. Rivera makes two appearances at Carnegie Hall in the season as a part of the Hall’s “Voices from Latin America” focus; celebrating her close association with Osvaldo Golijov, Ms. Rivera performs La Pasiónsegún San Marcos conducted by Robert Spano in Stern Auditorium and Ayre with the St. Lawrence String Quartet in Zankel Hall.  Other concert work includes Centinela Songs by Gabriela Lena Frank with the Annapolis Symphony and the world premiere of Holy Daughters, a newly-commissioned oratorio by Ms. Frank and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Nilo Cruz, featuring the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Girls Chorus under the baton of Joana Carneiro.

During the 2011-12 season Ms. Rivera made her debut with the Finnish National Opera as Kitty Oppenheimer, and with Madrid’s Teatro Real in Golijov’s Ainadamar, singing the role of Margarita Xirgu.  She returned to the Atlanta Symphony, led by Robert Spano, for concert performances of Adams’s A Flowering Tree, and to the Cartagena Festival in Colombia for Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos. Under the direction of Bernard Haitink, Jessica Rivera made her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which she also sang with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and in Salle Pleyel in Paris.  Other season highlights included the world premiere of a new work by Gabriela Lena Frank with Joana Carneiro and the Berkeley Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony, and a solo recital presented by San Francisco Performances. 

Jessica Rivera is now in her third year of the Artist Residency Program with San Francisco Performances where she conducts workshops in classroom and community settings throughout the Bay Area encouraging young people to open their minds to the beauty and power of music as well as to the poetry and spirit behind the art of song.

Highlights of recent seasons include performances of El Niño with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and at the Edinburgh International Festival with James Conlon and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Nixon Tapes with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the direction of John Adams, Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 (“Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”) with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with Franz Welser-Möst for a debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Sir Roger Norrington and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Britten’s Spring Symphony with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Carmen, as Micaëla, with Bramwell Tovey and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Poulenc’s Gloria with Mr. Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which she also sang with Grant Gershon at the Hollywood Bowl, and Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Mr. Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Carnegie Hall and Cal Performances Berkeley co-commissioned a work for Jessica Rivera written by Mark Grey to a libretto by Niloufar Talebi; Atash Sorushan (Fire Angels) received its premiere during recital presentations at Zankel Hall and Hertz Hall in a collaboration with pianist Molly Morkoski and the MEME Chamber Ensemble.

Jessica Rivera made her critically acclaimed Santa Fe Opera debut in the summer of 2005 as Nuria in the world premiere of the revised edition of Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. She reprised the role for the 2007 Grammy Award-winning Deutsche Grammophon recording of the work with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano, and bowed in the Peter Sellars staging at Lincoln Center, Opera Boston, as well as in performances at the Barbican Centre, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Cincinnati Opera, and the Ojai and Ravinia Festivals. The artist’s first performances of Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar, a role created by Dawn Upshaw, occurred in the summer of 2007 at the Colorado Music Festival under the baton of Michael Christie.

Committed to the art of recital, Ms. Rivera has performed in concert halls in New York, Los Angeles,  San Francisco and Santa Fe. In past seasons, to support a recital disc on the Urtext Records label that examines works for soprano, clarinet, and piano, Ms. Rivera toured North America with concerts in Los Angeles, New York (Carnegie Hall), Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, and Chicago (Ravinia Festival). She also has given a recital program at the Amelia Island Festival accompanied at the piano by Robert Spano. She was deeply honored to have received a commission from Carnegie Hall for the world premiere of a song cycle by Nico Muhly called The Adulteress given on the occasion of her Weill Hall recital performance.

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