Linda Maguire
Quick Facts
Biography
Linda Maguire (born May 7, 1959) is an American opera and classical singer, recording artist and researcher in sensory therapies. She is best known for her performance as Ermione in the 1995, BBC filmed Glyndebourne Festival production of Rossini's opera Ermione.
Biography
Maguire was born in Newport News, Virginia and as a teenager, worked as a madrigal singer and costumed character in Williamsburg, Virginia before going on to study opera at the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Toronto. After finishing her studies, she went on to a 23-year international career singing over thirty soprano and mezzo-soprano leading roles. In 1996, she toured extensively throughout the Netherlands, singing the lead contralto role in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.
She has recorded on the Collins Classics and Deutsche Grammophon Archiv labels, and has sung and recorded over eighty live vocal broadcasts of major works on radio stations CBC, BBC, NPR and others.
In 2004, she relocated from Toronto to Washington DC where she has sung in numerous performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, including Rossini's Stabat Mater, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand, Bach's cantata Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79, Amy Beach's Canticle of the Sun, and most recently, Mendlessohn's Elijah and Handel's Messiah during the 2008-2009 season.
One of her brothers is Michael Maguire, an American actor, best known for his role as Enjolras in the original Broadway production of the musical Les Misérables.
Awards
Arian Award, Metropolitan Opera Finalist, Juno Award (1993), Cardiff Singer of the World contestant representing Canada (1987)
Recordings
- Linda Maguire Sings Berlioz, Coulthard, Wagner, Respighi – CBC Vancouver Orchestra. Label: CBC Records
- Peter Maxwell Davies: Job – CBC Vancouver Orchestra. Label: Collins Classics
- Handel: La resurrezione – Les Musiciens du Louvre. Label: Deutsche Grammophon Archiv
- Handel: Excerpts From Floridante – Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Label: CBC Records