With “a gorgeous, profoundly expressive instrument,” “a bejeweled lyric soprano with an exquisite top register,” and as “a marvel of perfect intonation and pure tone,” American soprano Teresa Wakim is perhaps best-known as “a fine baroque stylist.”
Upon completion of her studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, she became a Choral Scholar with BU’s illustrious Marsh Chapel Choir, was soon named a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music in Boston, and then won First Prize in the International Soloist Competition for Early Music in Brunnenthal, Austria. The last several seasons have seen her make solo debuts at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Grand Théâtre de Provence, Severance Hall in Cleveland, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.
Recent concerts have included Bach’s Wedding Cantata Weichet nur betrübte Schatten and Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer with The Cleveland Orchestra, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony, Tucson Symphony, and San Antonio Symphony, Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and Handel’s Jephtha with the Handel & Haydn Society, and Haydn’s Creation with New Bedford Symphony.
Although praised for her performances of Brahms and Mozart, as well as new music, Wakim’s affinity for the Baroque has brought her much success. She enjoys working with many of North America’s best period ensembles, including the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, Boston Baroque, Dallas Bach Society, Pacific Musicworks, Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Bourbon Baroque, and Tragicomedia.
Work on the operatic stage includes roles in Handel’s Acis & Galatea (Galatea), Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes (Zima), Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Proserpina), Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas (Second Woman), Lully’s Psyche (Flore), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Pamina), Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio (Blonde), Charpentier’s Acteon (Diane), Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants (La Musique), Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles (La Conversation), Handel’s Alcina (Morgana), and Mendelssohn’s Son & Stranger (Lisbeth).
Plans this season include Bach cantatas with San Francisco Symphony, Brahms’ Requiem with Omaha Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with Alabama Symphony, and the Exsultate Jubilate with New World Symphony. Future operatic projects include roles of Fortuna and Giunone in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse with Boston Baroque, and in Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, the role of Zima with Bourbon Baroque. In addition, she will be a featured artist at the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Opera Gala, reprising her roles in Acis & Galatea, Dido & Aeneus, and Acteon.
With a prolific discography, she has been featured as soloist on four Grammy-Nominated albums with the Boston Early Music Festival and Seraphic Fire. She can also be heard on numerous discs with Blue Heron, Handel & Haydn Society, Apollo’s Fire, and others.