Upshaw came to international fame with her performance on the million-selling recording, with David Zinman, of the Symphony No 3 by Henryk Górecki, known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. She has premiered more than twenty-five new works, notably Henri Dutilleux's song-cycle Correspondances, and has embraced several pieces created for her, including the Grawemeyer Award-winning opera L’Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho, The Great Gatsby by John Harbison, the nativity oratorioEl Niño by John Adams, and Osvaldo Golijov's highly acclaimed chamber operaAinadamar and song cycleAyre. In 2009 she premiered David Bruce's song cycle The North Wind was a Woman at the gala opening of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centre's season. In addition to her operatic recordings, she has also sung the title role in the first complete recording of the score of Gershwin's Oh, Kay!. She has also recorded albums of songs by Vernon Duke and Rodgers and Hart. Upshaw was a guest of President of the United StatesBill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton on the NBC special, Christmas in Washington. The BBC presented a prime-time telecast of her 1996 London Proms Concert, "Dawn at Dusk", in which she performed songs from the American musical theater. Her engagements with James Levine over the years led to a 1997 recording of Debussy songs. She appears on an album of Christmas music in association with Chanticleer titled 'Christmas with Chanticleer featuring special guest Dawn Upshaw' for Teldec Classics. She tours regularly with pianist Gilbert Kalish. Richard Goode and Margo Garrett are also long-standing partners. She has worked with the director Peter Sellars many times, including his staging of Händel's Theodora at Glyndebourne, his Paris production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress , a staging of Bach's cantata Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, presented in the 1995-96 season at New York's 92nd Street Y, and the Salzburg Festival production of Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. Upshaw has often performed as a soloist at the annual Ojai Music Festival in Ojai, CA; most recently in 2006, 2008 and 2009. In 2011, she was the Music Director of the festival, where she performed the world premiere of the Peter Sellers' staged production of George Crumb's work, Winds of Destiny. She joined the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as Artistic Partner beginning with the 2007-08 season, and she is Artistic Director of the Graduate Program in Vocal Arts at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, which accepted its first students in the 2006-2007 academic year. She also is a faculty member at the Tanglewood Music Center. She holds honorary Doctor of Arts, honoris causa, from Yale University, the Manhattan School of Music, Illinois Wesleyan University and Allegheny College.
Personal life
She is divorced and a mother of two. She lives near New York City. She was diagnosed with and treated for early-stage breast cancer in 2006.
Awards and recognitions
2014 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist:
