Babidge, Bishop, and Burton to Join the Juilliard Voice Faculty

By SBO+ Staff

Juilliard has announced the appointments of baritone Darrell Babidge, mezzo-soprano and alumna Elizabeth Bishop, and soprano Amy Burton to the voice faculty in Juilliard’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts. Their appointments will begin this fall semester.

British-born baritone Darrell Babidge graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in the U.K. He received his master’s from Brigham Young University and his professional degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where his studies were funded by Birgit Nilsson. While a student, he performed the title role of Britten’s Owen Wingrave with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Babidge has performed as an operatic and concert soloist throughout Europe, America, and Asia, at prestigious venues and with leading conductors. From 2006 to 2019, Babidge was on the voice faculty at Brigham Young University. He also keeps a private studio and teaches the Utah Opera Resident Artists and Arizona Opera Studio Artists programs. During the summer, he is a vocal coach with Dolora Zajick at the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices.

American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop is enjoying a long career on the opera stages and concert halls of the world, including San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Pittsburgh Opera, Dallas Opera, Atlanta Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy. Among the orchestras she has performed with are the Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands. She recorded with San Francisco Opera and Atlanta Symphony and won a Grammy for her work in the Ring cycle with the Metropolitan Opera in 2012. A graduate of Juilliard (MM in vocal performance) and Furman University (double BA in music and political science), Bishop won the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and joined the San Francisco Opera as an Adler Fellow following year. Widely sought after as a teacher and master class clinician, she taught at Palm Beach Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music, Furman University, Virginia Opera, Duke University, George Mason University, Bel Canto in Tuscany, NATS, and Washington National Opera Institute for Young Singers.

Versatile soprano Amy Burton has sung with the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera, at the White House, and with major opera companies and orchestras throughout the U.S., Europe, U.K., Japan, and Israel as well as on recital and cabaret stages from New York to Barcelona. A frequent interpreter of 20th and 21st-century music, she has premiered pieces by John Musto, Paul Moravec, Lee Hoiby, John Harbison, Richard Festinger, and Richard Danielpour, to name a few. Also specializing in French vocal music of the 1920s and 30s, Burton has performed both mélodies and chansons populaires throughout the U.S. and Europe, and recorded a critically acclaimed CD with conductor Yves Abel, Souvenir de Printemps. Burton is professor of voice at the Mannes College of Music and the CUNY Graduate Center Doctoral program and is on the faculty of SongFest at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. She has taught French vocal literature at Manhattan School of Music, and maintains a private voice studio in New York City. She has given master classes and residencies throughout the U.S. and in Paris.