Biography

Marietta Simpson is Distinguished Rudy Professor of Music in Voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she has served on faculty since August 2005.

Known for her deeply expressive, richly beautiful voice, Simpson has sung with every major orchestra in the United States, under many of the world’s greatest conductors. Among them are the late Kurt Masur and André Previn, Simon Rattle, Neville Mariner, Robert Page, James Conlon, Helmut Rilling, Nicholas McGegan, Daniel Barenboim, Raymond Leppard, Lorin Maazel, and the late Robert Shaw, with whom she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1988 as soloist in Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Simpson has also sung with many of the major European orchestras, including the philharmonic orchestras of London, Prague, Berlin, and Vienna. She has performed on some of the great operatic stages of the world, including La Fenice, La Scala, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Bregenz abroad, and Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass, Washington National Opera, Augusta Opera, Opera Birmingham, Mobile Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia in the United States.

Simpson has an extensive discography and has performed on several Grammy-nominated recordings. She received Grammy recognition in 2006 for her solo role on the Grammy Award-winning recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (Naxos), with Leonard Slatkin conducting. Her many television appearances include the Emmy Award-winning Strange Fruit, with guitarist Tyron Cooper, and the Emmy-nominated Musical Threads: A Musical Journey, with Cooper and produced by WFYI Television. Among her many awards is the Temple University Certificate of Honor for Distinguished Alumni and the Leontyne Price Award.