Ms. Barber recently added Paris to her list of stops on the international circuit with a debut performance in the title role of Handel's ARIODANTE, followed by Annio in Mozart's LA CLEMENZA DI TITO for the Paris Opera at the Palais Garnier in the spring of 2001. Of her winter 2001 concert performances of Ariodante in Toronto, Tamara Bernstein of the National Post wrote "Barber never settled for mere display: The coloratura always sprang directly from the emotions, whether it was the quasi-sexual ecstasy of Con l'ali di costanza or the triumph of life and love over death and darkness in Dopo notte. But the knockout aria was Scherza infida, where Ariodante reaches the depths of despair, and the muted orchestra accompanies with painful but caressing dissonances. Barber's deeply moving performance was matched by exquisite playing..."

Kimberly Barber opened the 1999-2000 season with her return to the New York Festival of Song in a program of Kurt Weill songs. Other engagements included concert performances in the role of Orlofsky at the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Spain, then Hamilton saw her first Siébels in Gounod’s FAUST with Opera Ontario, closely followed by her first performances with New York's Eos Orchestra in their production SIX TEN MINUTE OPERAS, which included the world premiere of Jake Heggie's AGAIN. Following her impressive debut performance in the title role of Handel's XERXES for Seattle Opera, Ms. Barber was immediately re-engaged to sing Handel's young King for the Canadian Opera Company in critically acclaimed performances which garnered her a nomination for Best Female Musical Performance in the 1999 "Dora" Toronto Theatre Awards. She was then featured as Erika in Seattle Opera's new production of Samuel Barber's VANESSA. Earlier that year, Ms Barber sang her first Suzuki in MADAMA BUTTERFLY under Tim Albery's direction for Opera Zuid, with stops in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Maastricht. Her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago followed, as the Composer in Strauss' ARIADNE AUF NAXOS.

On the recording front, her disc of songs by Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Aaron J. Kernis is available on New Albion records and her Concepciòn in L'HEURE ESPAGNOLE for Deutsche Grammophon, conducted by André Previn leading the London Symphony, was recorded following live performances at Barbican Hall in the British capital and released in the spring of 1999.

Kimberly Barber studied at the University of Toronto and began her career as a member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble. She then shifted her sights to European stages, beginning at Opéra de Marseille and at the Frankfurt Opera, where she was a member of the company from 1989-1994. There she appeared as Cherubino, Dorabella, Rosina, der Komponist in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, Hermia in Britten's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Annio in LA CLEMENZA DI TITO and Ramiro in LA FINTA GIARDINIERA. The principal 'trouser roles' of Mozart, Rossini, and Strauss are also mainstays in her repertoire. She is a sparkling stage champion of the French operatic repertoire including the title role in Massenet's CENDRILLON and Nicklausse/Muse in LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN. She "made a great impression" as Lazuli in Chabrier's L'ETOILE for l'Opéra Français de New York, and again with Opera Zuid in Holland. Doron Nagan of the Algemeen Dagblad wrote of her uncanny performances in L'ETOILE, "Kimberly Barber's singing and acting presence fascinated. There can never have been a mezzo who embodied a trouser part so convincingly, so naturally, or with such passion." Michael Davidson of Opera magazine praised her for "her scintillating phrasing, razor-sharp timing and astonishingly plastic body language".

In concert, Kimberly Barber has been a guest soloist with the Chicago and Toronto Symphonies, the German Southwest Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Cincinnati Pops, the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra in a vast repertoire, which includes Berlioz' NUITS D'ETE, Beethoven's NINTH SYMPHONY, Mozart's CORONATION MASS and Handel's MESSIAH among many other works. As a recitalist she is a frequent collaborator with Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song, counting Carnegie and Wigmore Hall debuts among her list of credits. June 1998 saw her in performances of the Fauré and Duruflé REQUIEMs with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, and in the summer of 1999 she made her debut with the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, singing in Stravinsky's PULCINELLA at Avery Fisher Hall under Gerard Schwarz's direction. In September 2000, Ms Barber sang debut performances of Dominick Argento's CASA GUIDI with the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Eiji Oue.

In addition to Mr. Previn, Mr. Schwarz and Mr. Chung, Ms. Barber has worked with conductors Charles Dutoit, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Armin Jordan, and Patrick Summers. Her director collaborators include Stephen Wadsworth, Tim Albery, David Pountney, Christopher Alden, Robert Carsen, Johannes Schaaf, Peter Mussbach, and the late Göran Järvevelt.

In the spring of 2003, Ms Barber will tour Japan with Seiji Ozawa for performances of L'HEURE ESPAGNOLE and GIANNI SCHICCHI and in 2004 returns to Seattle Opera as the Composer in Strauss' ARIADNE AUF NAXOS.

Contact details and further information

Please contact:
Kimberly Barber

Markus Philipp
Personal Assistant
Langendellschlag 68
65199 Wiesbaden / Germany
tel. 0049-611-4689310
fax 0049-611-467233
E-mail: Markus Philipp

World Management (except Canada)
Jeffrey Vanderveen
Vanderveen-Guerri Division
Columbia Artists Management Inc.
165 West 57 Street
New York, NY 10019
U.S.A.
tel. 001-212 841-9548
fax 001-212 841-9516
E-mail: Jeffrey Vanderveen

Canada Management
Carrol Anne Curry
Dean Artists Management
204A St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5R 1E5
Canada
tel. 001-416-969-7300
fax 001-416-969-7969
E-mail: Carrol Anne Curry

For further details, see Kimberly Barber's home pages