About
Jennifer Roderer will perform the role of Giovanna in Rigoletto for the Metropolitan Opera's 2018/19 season. In 2017, she made her house debut at the Met as La duègne in Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac, and has covered roles for the company since 2015. This season, she sang Marfa in Rothschild's Violin with American Symphony Orchestra and was the Alto 2 Soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Canterbury Chorale, both performed at Carnegie Hall, and will sing the Alto/Soprano 2 solos in Rossini's Stabat Mater with Hunter Symphony and Chorale. In 2015, Jennifer created the role of Shifrah Puah in Ben Moore and Nahma Sandrow's opera Enemies, A Love Story for Palm Beach Opera and sang Aunt Sue in Carslisle Floyd’s Slow Dusk with the Little Opera Theatre of New York. Other recent performances include her Spoleto Opera debut as Kabanicha in Kat'a Kabanova, Quickly in Falstaff at Chautauqua Opera, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (both with Syracuse Opera), and Azucena in Il Trovatore with Opera Roanoke.
Since her 1999 debut at New York City Opera, she has performed a diverse array of roles for that company, including, Lady Angela in Patience, Junon in Mark Morris’ production of Plateé, Jade Boucher in Dead Man Walking, the Third Lady in The Magic Flute, Sappho in Lysistrata, as well as Cecilia March in Little Women on NYCO’s first tour of Japan. Jennifer has sung the the Witch in Hansel and Gretel with NYCO, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Utah Opera and Opera Roanoke, among others, Mrs. Grose in Turn of the Screw at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Toledo Opera and Lorin Maazel’s Chateauville Foundation, Amneris in Aida for Opern Air Gars in Austria, New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Opera Illinois and Berkeley Opera, Ruth In Pirates of Penzance with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Indianapolis Opera and Opera a la Carte.
In 2005, Ms. Roderer made a critically acclaimed debut at the Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires as Fricka in Die Walküre, conducted by Charles Dutoit. Other Wagnerian credits include Waltraute in Die Walküre for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Seattle Opera, Rossweise in Die Walküre at Opera Pacific, and a Flowermaiden in Parsifal with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Pierre Boulez, as well as several orchestral concerts with the Wagner Society of Washington D.C. in excerpts from Lohengrin, Götterdämmerung, and Siegfried. Other performances in the German repertoire include Klementia in Sancta Susanna with the American Symphony Orchestra, Gertrude in Hänsel und Gretel with New Jersey Symphony, the Second Maidservant in Elektra at Los Angeles Opera and Washington National Opera, First Maidservant in Elektra at Virginia Opera, and Die Notarin in Intermezzo at Santa Fe Opera.
Highlights of Jennifer’s numerous concert performances include Verdi’s Requiem with the Berkshire Choral Festival at Terezin, Handel’s Messiah with the Jacksonville Symphony and also under John Rutter at Carnegie Hall, Bach’s B minor Mass and Dvorák’s Requiem with the Berkshire Choral Festival and Les noces with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, at the Dorothy Chandeler Pavilion and under the baton of Peter Eötvös at the Ojai Festival, Horatio Parker's Hora Novissima with the Pacific Chorale and Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with the New Jersey Symphony and the Berkshire Lyric Theatre, Vivaldi’s Gloria at Carnegie Hall, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Anchorage Symphony; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as with the Jacksonville Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and Florida Symphony.
Ms. Roderer has given New York recitals under the auspices of the Wagner Society of New York, the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Saratoga Arts Festival. Jennifer received grants from the William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation, Opera Buffs of Southern California, and the Wagner Societies of New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. She won the Arthur E. Walters Memorial Award from Opera Index and First Place in the Opera Guild of Southern California Competition. Born in Illinois and raised in Los Angeles, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California, a Master of Arts from CUNY Hunter College, and is pursuing her DMA at the CUNY Graduate Center.