Mardi Byers “The Grace Kelly of the Opera World” [i] is one of the most exciting and talented artists to have emerged from the United States of America in recent years. Hailed by the press as “world class” [ii], she is making her mark on international opera and concert stages including the Hamburg State Opera, Bregenz Festival, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater, New York City Opera, and Finnish National Opera.

Her triumphant opera debut as Floria Tosca at Theater Lübeck in 2003 earned her both critical and public acclaim, prompting invitations from leading opera houses to sing the major roles of her repertoire including Amelia Simon Boccanegra at the Hamburg State Opera, Marie in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s celebrated production of Wozzeck with the Bolshoi Theater conducted by Teodor Currentzis, Aida at the Bregenz Festival in a Graham Vick production, Donna Anna Don Giovanni at New York City Opera directed by Harold Prince, Georgette and Suor Angelica Il Trittico for New Orleans Opera, Elisabetta Don Carlo for Theater Basel directed by Calixto Beito, and Marietta Die Tote Stadt and Elizabeth Tannhäuser at the Nürnberg State Theater, where she will return in the summer of 2010 to star as the Prima Donna /Ariadne in a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos, followed by her debut with Finnish National Opera in the title role of Aida.

Mardi Byers’ further European credits include Aida under the baton of Daniele Gatti, Elisabetta Don Carlos in both the French and Italian versions, Amelia I Masnadieri, Marguerite Faust, the title role in Adriana Lecouvreur, La Contessa Le Nozze di Figaro, and Margarete in Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher.

Equally at home on the concert stage Mardi Byers has performed Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder in Hamburg, Verdi’s Requiem, and most recently sang the Beethoven Ninth Symphony for the Stuttgart Symphony’s New Year’s Concert. Recitals have taken her to San Francisco, Zurich, Munich and Salzburg, and in November 2010 she will sing the Verdi Requiem in Finnland’s esteemed Turku Concert Hall.

Mardi Byers is a native of Boulder, Colorado and resides in Zürich.

[i] Die Welt
[ii] Die Welt; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung