Biography

GRAMMY-nominated Carole Farley made her Metropolitan Opera debut at age 19 in the title role of Lulu (the Met's first production), a role she has repeated over 100 times in four languages (German, English, French and Italian). Carole Farley returned to the Metropolitan Opera for the title role in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Shostakovich, the only non-Russian in the cast. Her more than 100 performances of Salome in opera houses around the world have been highly acclaimed. As a regular guest of the world's opera houses, she has performed at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera, Oper der Stadt Köln, New York City Opera, Welsh National Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and in Zürich, Düsseldorf, Paris, Torino, Lyon, Brussels, Nice and Florence, and many other cities. Highlights in her career include the Paris production of The Merry Widow and the Lyubimov-staged Lulu for Torino which was awarded the Abbiati Prize in Italy. She has claimed the role of Jenny in Mahagonny as her own following huge successes in Buenos Aires at Teatro Colón. Her performances of Poulenc's La Voix Humaine and Menotti's The Telephone have been filmed by Decca in co-production with the BBC, and now re-issued on DVD, a best-seller in the New York Times charts. This film, first shown on prime time television by the BBC, is her third for the Poulenc opera. The first two films were done in Sydney by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with the Sydney Symphony, one in French and one in English.

Carole Farley's orchestral appearances have included most of the leading orchestras in the U.S. including the New York Philharmonic, Boston, Pittsburgh and Baltimore Symphonies, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras, and the National Symphony, with conductors Levine, Mehta, Skrowaszewski, Dorati, Kostelanetz, Zinman and Sir Andrew Davis. Her European orchestra concerts include the BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France and the Radio Orchestras of Brussels, Paris, Torino, Cologne, Rome, The Hague, Helsinki and Barcelona with Levine, Boulez, Martinon, Bertini, Santi, Pritchard, Maazel, Downes, Salonen, Davis, Foster, Leitner, Fiore, and others. Last year she did a Latin American tour with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and an international tour with the National Chamber Orchestra of Toulouse, opera productions in France (Wozzeck and The Merry Widow), and in many European houses including Parsifal, Die Walküre, Salome and The Makropoulos Case. Her extensive discography includes over fifty titles, with multiple awards including the Grand Prix du Disque, Deutsche Schallplatten Award, Gramophone Editor's Choice, Gramophone's CD of the Month, GRAMMY nominations, and many others. She won the Grand Prix du Disque for her recording of Aubert Lemeland’s “Omaha, Chant pour les soldats morts.”

Recent recordings include three Kurt Weill CD's, including the world premiere recording of "Der Neue Orpheus", a best-seller CD of Ned Rorem songs with the composer at the piano, songs by Ernesto Lecuona, orchestral CD's of songs by Richard Strauss, Edvard Grieg, Delius and arias by Tchaikovsky, as well as her CD of songs by William Bolcom, accompanied at the piano by the composer, recipient of two GRAMMY nominations in 2006 for Best Vocal Album, and Gramophone's CD of the Month. She debuted at San Carlo Opera in Naples, Italy, in Leonard Bernstein's opera Candide. Her newest CD, "Classic American Love Songs" Volume 1, was released in June 2007.

Recent touring has taken her to China for a 10-city tour as featured soloist with the Orchestra of the Americas as well as to the Bermuda Festival with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra.

Ms Farley has recently established her own company “Carole Farley International Vocal Coaching” and is currently coaching and mentoring singers internationally. She is in demand for vocal masterclasses, which have included the NY Chamber Music Festival, Yale University, University of Miami, Long Island University, Florida International University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Royal Academy of Music in London, Hong Kong International Piano Competition (presented by Chopin Society Hong Kong), Academy of Music in Hong Kong and among many others in the US and abroad. In addition to creating a seminar/workshop on musical entrepreneurship for singers, which is currently touring, she has secured international artistic management for four singers, with two already having contracts for leading roles at the MET and other opera houses.