LAQUITA MITCHELL
SOPRANO
BIOGRAPHY
Soprano Laquita Mitchell consistently earns acclaim on eminent international opera and concert stages worldwide. Ms. Mitchell performed the soprano soloist in the world première of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall with Oratorio Society of New York which was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award.
This season, Mitchell will reprise “Julie” in Omar for Carolina Performing Arts, a role she created in the opera’s world premiere at the Spoleto Festival last season, and return to the role of Josephine Baker in Josephine with Music of Remembrance. In concert, Ms. Mitchell performs Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Madison Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Sarasota Orchestra, Sanctuary Road with the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, Verdi’s Requiem with Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Tippet’s A Child of Our Time with Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. Next season, Mitchell will return to the role of Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. [read more...]
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"emerged with welcome clarity." – Opera News
Josephine – "In Josephine, Laquita Mitchell looked ravishing, coming close to capturing performer Josephine Baker's unstoppable vitality...Her scattered quiet moments or spoken words emerged with welcome clarity."
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"a smooth-voiced and soothing presence" – The New York Times
Omar – "Julie (the soprano Laquita Mitchell, a smooth-voiced and soothing presence), who escapes from the slave market in Charleston but urges Said to meet her in Fayetteville, N.C., at Owen’s property. When they reunite there, she explains why she was helping him to begin with, in the opera’s finest aria, which begins with the line 'My daddy wore a cap like yours.'"
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"...showed off a supple and refined soprano as Bess..." – Boston Globe
Porgy and Bess – “Laquita Mitchell showed off a supple and refined soprano as Bess, infusing the role with a touching vulnerability and innocence yet at the same time an awareness of her own weakness that gave her portrayal a weightier pull.”
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"...the most purely gorgeous piece of the evening..." – Opera News
Sanctuary Road – “…and the gleaming soprano Laquita Mitchell gave a captivating, heartfelt plea for "Rain," in what was the most purely gorgeous piece of the evening”