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ARIADNE GREIF, praised for her "luminous, expressive voice" (NYTimes), her "elastic and round high notes" (classiqueinfo), and her "mesmerizing stage presence" (East Anglian Daily Times), recently gave a triumphant run as the title role in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias with the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburgh, UK. Ariadne starred as the title role in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges, Ivona in Jeff Myers' The Hunger Art, the title role in Rusalka, Lucy in Menotti's The Telephone, Sandmann in a concert version of Hänsel und Gretel, Phaedra in Christopher Park's new opera, Phaedra and Hippolytus, and the only female role, Madeline, in Debussy's unfinished opera La Chûte de la Maison Usher with the Opéra Français de New York.
She sang the title role in the workshop and workshop recording of Aleksandra Vrebalov’s Mileva, an opera about Einstein’s first wife, and as Maude in a workshop performance of Mark Grant’s Human Zoo with the Center for Contemporary Opera.
Ariadne made her major orchestral debut singing Witold Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She made her Zankel Hall debut as part of the Upshaw-Golijov program, premiering pieces written for her by Elena Langer, made her debut with Ensemble 212 in a performance of Bach’s Wedding Cantata, gave the world premiere of Aaron Dai's Con Furia with the Chelsea Symphony, and made her Fisher Center debut singing Ainu Dreams, new orchestral songs by Greg Armbruster.
In the summer of 2011 Dawn Upshaw invited her to perform at the 2011 Ojai Music Festival in California, where, Mark Swed wrote, “Greif, who sang an avant-garde piece by Georges Aperghis winningly, looks to be a boon to new music” (LA Times). In the same summer, Ariadne was the first resident young singer in more than a decade at Yellow Barn Festival in Vermont and sang as a Britten-Pears Young Artist in Aldeburgh, UK. Ariadne was invited to return to the 2012 Aldeburgh Festival as a Britten-Pears Young Artist and the 2012 Yellow Barn Music Festival, appeared in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella at the 2012 Greenwich Music Festival, and sang a concert at the Cape May Music Festival with the New York Chamber Ensemble, Alan Kay, and William Schimmel.
This year, Ariadne sang the role of Jesus in A Gnostic Passion by Brad and Doug Balliett with Cantori New York, after premiering Dafne, a cantata by Doug Balliett. She was invited back by Contemporaneous to premiere her long-time collaborator Ryan Chase's Carroll Madrigals. She gave a recital at Copland House with Gregg Kallor and the Bruno Walter Auditorium with Matthew Odell, and sang a "riveting" recital on the Resonant Bodies Festival in September 2013, where she sang George Crumb's Apparition for the first time, in a performance deemed "dramatic and seductive" by the New York Times.
Other recent projects have included a week of ten concerts for children at Zankel Hall under the auspices of the Weill Music Institute, a series of semi-staged performances of La Testa di Santa Caterina, a mini-mono-opera by Matti Kovler, culminating in her Jordan Hall debut, and semi-staged performances of Gabrielle Herbst's experimental miniature opera Bodiless with Experiments in Opera and Hotel Elefant. She premiered The Jabberwocky, by Ryan Chase, in her first performance with Contemporaneous, and gave her debut performances with Manhattan-based Pierrot ensemble Lunatics at Large, the Millennials, 20-21. She tackled Schubert's Winterreise and Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments for the first time and gave a shared recital of Barber's complete vocal works at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center; a shared recital of unaccompanied music with the avant garde's veteran champion, cellist Madeline Shapiro; a recital of Dadaist 20th century music; and a world premiere as Galileo in a piece by her dear friend Erol Gurol for eight cellos, soprano, and choir to the heretical text of Galileo's Starry Messenger.
Upcoming projects include a full-length premiere of Gabrielle Herbst's expanded, three-act opera BODILESS at Roulette in the spring with Contemporaneous, and Calligrammes, an evening-length song-cycle by Albert Behar.
Ariadne founded Uncommon Temperament, a Manhattan-based baroque ensemble, with whom, among other things, she has toured three times, created a traveling production of Bach's Coffee Cantata, thrown a birthday party for Telemann, and made her Poisson Rouge debut, hailed as "…accomplished and winning…" by the NY Times. She also performs and tours regularly with SHUFFLE Concert, with whom she will release an album in October before touring Israel and Spain.
With Uncommon Temperament, SHUFFLE Concert, and the concert accordionist Merima Kljuco, she has done teaching/performing chamber music residencies at the Detroit Institute of Art, Gettysburg College Conservatory, and Philips Exeter Academy, respectively.
As a student, she won the Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition singing Witold Lutoslawski's Chantefleurs et Chantefables, and premiered The Door, by Ryan Chase, with the Mannes Orchestra.
A California native, in her early career as a "boy soprano," she toured internationally with the Los Angeles Childrens Chorus, performed as "Sem" in Britten's Noye's Fludde, and sang in the premiere of Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox at the Los Angeles Opera under the baton of Peter Ash.
