ARIADNE GREIF | Soprano

"...raw, no-holds-barred performance..."

-New York Times

BIOGRAPHY

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), began her opera career as a ‘boy’ soprano in the Los Angeles area and at the LA Opera, eventually making an adult debut singing Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She starred in roles ranging from Therese/Tirésias in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias, singing a “thoroughly commanding and effortless” run at the Aldeburgh Festival, a "sassy" Adina in The Elixir of Love with the Orlando Philharmonic, to Sappho in Atthis by Georg Friedrich Haas, for which the New York Times noted her “searing top notes,” and “dusky depths,” calling it “a solo high-wire act for Ms. Greif,” “a vehicle for Ms. Greif’s raw, no-holds-barred performance,” “one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.”

A music video of Table Manners, written for Ariadne by Sheree Clement, directed by Mary Birnbaum, featuring couture by St. Barite and cinematography by Caroline Mariko Stucky, premiered in June 2021, with Ariadne playing both roles. She made a cameo appearance backing up Jodie Landau at The Little Island in NYC, at Tina Landau and Friends: BYOB, and appeared in various pop up performances around New York with Amanda + James as part of their Summer Happenings Festival, singing Kaija Saariaho‘s stunning Lonh. She was featured in the 2021 summer season of PS21 in Chatham, NY. In fall 2021, she performed two large pieces for Contemporaneous Day of Imagination, with Mary Prescott for Metropolis Ensemble’s Biophony, a concert with Present Music Milwaukee with Music for People Who Like Art by Andrew Hamilton, and some Wagner with Momenta Quartet and Carl Bettendorf. She performed in Isola, new staged monodrama by Alyssa Weinberg at Princeton, with Andrew Yee, Katie Hyun, Miho Saegusa, conductor Gabriel Crouch and director Ashley Tata, and gave a gothic Halloween concert with Lacy Rose, Ben Katz, and the Starling Quartet at the Triad Theater in NY. She sang a concert honoring Marilyn Schrude with Lost Dog New Music Ensemble and Momenta Quartet, a recital of Crumb, Shaw, Weinberg, and Rachmaninoff with Jason Wirth and Amanda + James, and a performance of William Kentridge’s production of Ursonate at the Philarmonie Luxembourg. In 2022 she sang concerts with Argento New Music Project, Ensemble Échappé, and Da Capo Chamber Players, St. John’s Passion with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, an event at Cielos, CA, with Art Haus Playa, four short operas with the NYU Composers Lab, and two short operas with Cutting Edge Concerts, American Modern Ensemble, and Mostly Modern Projects. She stepped in at the last minute for a concert with The Knights and Aaron Diehl at the 92nd St. Y of the Zodiac Suite by Mary Lou Williams. In June she stepped in for soprano Julia Bullock at the Ojai Festival with AMOC, in pieces by Matt Aucoin, a premiere of a new and funky opera called The Fall of Rome, by Doug Balliett, and the festival closing concert.

Ariadne spent the summer of 2020 creating a new piece, called Bird Party, for the 2020 Ultima Festival in Oslo, Norway, where it was premiered in September, alongside Dreams of Our Future, a piece by Sofia Jernberg, directed by Louise Beck, in which Ariadne appeared by video. Bird Party exists as a stand-alone film, by cinematographer Caroline Mariko Stucky, featuring a collection by designer St. Barite. Ariadne appeared in October on the Six Feet Apart series of The Sofia Home of B Street in a filmed concert of contemporary music for voice and electronics. She appeared again in Malena Dayen’s opera Exercises on the Presence of Odradek as part of the 2020 Vrystaat Festival, and created a character in a creative interactive live virtual adventure for the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. In 2021 she participated in initial workshops with Joseph C. Phillips Jr. on a new opera cycle called 1619, inspired by the 2019 New York Times series The 1619 Project and the 2014 Ta-Nehisi Coates The Atlantic article “The Case for Reparations”. In spring she starred in We Need To Talk by Caroline Shaw, a collaboration with the poet Anne Carson, director Maureen Towey, videographers Four/Ten Media, still available from Opera Philadelphia.

The 2019/2020 season had a busy start with a concert of opera scenes with So & So, a new New York orchestra in its second season, including scenes from La Traviata, Magic Flute, Eugene Onegin, and Iolanta, conducted by Hannah Schneider. Ariadne performed in Two Roads, by Guillermo Laporta, with director/choreographer Tagore Gonzalez as a part of CreArtBox Music Festival, which was repeated in spring of 2020, sang a concert with Ensemble Mélange at the Shandelee Music Festival, and sang Berio Folksongs and Respighi’s Il Tramonto at the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival in Virginia. Along with Paul Pinto, she created three lighthearted performance art halftime shows for the 2019 Resonant Bodies Festival, sang two concerts of Elizabethan songs with lutenist Hideki Yamaya in October in Boston, and several concerts with composer/singer-songwriter Lacy Rose. She sang in a new interdisciplinary piece by Mary Prescott, and a workshop of a new opera by Paul Pinto, and in a workshop of Kate Soper’s new opera, The Romance of the Rose. In spring all physical concerts were canceled or postponed; including the role of “Idleness” in Kate Soper’s new opera, The Romance of the Rose, presented by Peak Performances, Montclair NJ, and a new piece by Sofia Jernberg at the Monheim Triennale. She performed in a virtual 3D performance of Malena Dayen’s new piece Exercises on the Presence of Odradek with Bare Opera.

Ariadne began the 2018/19 season with a “spectacular” staged recital in Sydney, Australia at the Resonant Bodies Festival. In September, she performed with William Kentridge in his production of the Dada masterpiece Ursonate at the Ultima Festival in Oslo. She sang the role of Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea directed by David Paul with Bare Opera, performed in Songs Between Life and Death at Roulette with pianist and composer Mary Prescott, sang a concert performance of Victoria Bond’s new opera Gulliver’s Travels, directed by Doug Fitch, as well as a staged workshop of a new opera adaptation of The Passion According to G. H. by Dara Malina and Lacy Rose, and performed in Star Choir, a new multimedia oratorio by Malik Gaines inspired by Octavia Butler at The Park Avenue Armory. She sang selections of Gustav Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn at Juilliard with conductor Elinor Rufeizen. She sang a collection of Schubert songs with the New York Orchestra, with conductor Michael Feldman, alongside pianist Maxim Lando, tackled Schumann’s Dichterliebe for the first time in recital with pianist Conor Hanick, along with early songs of Alma Mahler and Alban Berg, sang Schoenberg String Quartet No. 2 with JACK Quartet, a concert of chamber music with Listen Closely in Wisconsin, and a benefit concert at Caramoor with Eric Jacobsen and friends, made an appearance with Momenta Quartet, introduced her duo with Lucy Dhegrae, called Dhegrae & Digression, and toured in Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan with Ensemble Mélange (formerly SHUFFLE Concert). She appears in William Kentridge’s “Let Us Try for Once” exhibition at the Marian Goodman Gallery in footage from Ursonate and in an installation by Ander Mikalson entitled “Scores for a Black Hole” at Art in General. She was featured with Bridget Kibbey in Ljova Zhurbin’s soundtrack for Marta Renzi’s film Her Magnum Opus and made a cameo vocal appearance in v!va, a new album by Evan Shinners (a.k.a. WTF Bach), after making a casual guest appearance at his performance installation The Bach Store. In June she and violinist Alex Fortes were in residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and in August, she gave a concert of Strozzi and contemporaries with theorbist Hideki Yamaya on a new concert series presented by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim called The Beginner’s Ear.

2017-18 included concerts in France, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Utah, Virginia, Ohio, Washington, and New York. In November, Ariadne made a cameo appearance alongside William Kentridge in performances of the Dada masterpiece Ursonate. She returned to the The Knights, Shuffle Concert, Floating Tower, and Metropolis Ensemble, and sang for the first time with the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Refugee Orchestra Project, the MATA Festival, and Alterity Chamber Orchestra. She appeared at the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Washington Square Music Festival, and Festival Daniou. Repertoire included Carmina Burana, Mendelssohn's concert aria "Infelice!", Bach's Wedding Cantata, new songs by Angélica Negrón, various recital appearances of Viennese music from the 20th century including an all-star Degenerate Cabaret, and three workshops of new operas. In January she performed in 1933, a new theatrical cabaret of music from the eponymous year with Ensemble Mélange (at the time, known as SHUFFLE Concert). In her fourth project with director Doug Fitch, Greif was part of the premiere of the new opera Six. Twenty. Outrageous., by Daniel Thomas Davis, in February. Projects in the spring included David Gordon's 40 minute song cycle Mysteria Incarnationis at the MATA Festival with Miranda Cuckson and Blair McMillen, as well as a concert of Mozart and Haydn concert arias with Michael Feldman and The Orchestra at St. Veronica's, a new performance series in a deconsecrated church in the West Village. In May, Ariadne was featured singing opera arias in Classical Celebration, a gala event at the Sarasota Opera House, and in June she sang Mahler Symphony No. 4 with Eric Jacobsen and the Northwest Sinfonietta.

In 2016/17 she sang three performances of Carmina Burana, debuted as Musetta in La Boheme with Eric Jacobsen and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, appeared with The Knights for the first time, and returned to the Orlando Philharmonic as Adina in The Elixir of Love with Eric Jacobsen, where she was praised as a "sassy" Adina, with "tonally pleasing high notes and a delightful sparkling quality to both her singing and acting." In the fall, she sang the main role of Rhinemaiden Melania in eleven performances of Matti Kovler's opera The Drumf and the Rhinegold, directed by Doug Fitch, with a reprise in May, and returned to Metropolis Ensemble to perform solo Cage on roller-skates at their 10th Anniversary Musicircus. In spring she toured for a fourth time to the Middle East with Ensemble Mélange (at the time, known as SHUFFLE Concert). She made an appearance in Doug Fitch's Art Gallery Variety Show at National Sawdust, sang recitals of Crumb and Britten and 2nd Viennese School masterpieces, as well as a recital at Mainly Mozart Miami with pianist Marina Radiushina and baritone John Moore.

Concert performances in 2015/16 included Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Mozart Requiem, and Mozart Vespers K.321, concerts of chamber music in venues from Carnegie’s Weill Hall to Le Poisson Rouge, across the US, Canada, and in the Middle East, as well as several contemporary music projects. She created and executed a twenty-composer commissioning project of her own, called DREAMS & NIGHTMARES, subject of an upcoming documentary, Only a Dream, by filmmaker Caroline Mariko Stucky. In 2016 she performed Milton Babbitt’s Solo Requiem with Joel Sachs and Robert Fleitz at the Juilliard Focus! Festival, went on a recital tour with the AW Duo in the American South, and made an American Midwest tour with Ensemble Mélange (at the time, known as SHUFFLE Concert), with whom she has performed over 250 concerts. She made a repeat performance of Ricardo Romaneiro's Coarse Air with the Metropolis Ensemble, sang a concert with Gabriel Kahane of music by Kahane and David Lang at the Meidän Festival at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki. In April she sang the role of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with the Orlando Philharmonic.

She has premiered over a hundred new works and more than a dozen new operas. She created a twenty-composer commissioning project, called Dreams & Nightmares, subject of a forthcoming documentary called Only a Dream. Operas have included the role of Yaga the Witch in Matti Kovler’s Ami & Tami, where she played a villain for the first time, and a nameless main role in Gabrielle Herbst’s disturbing masterpiece BODILESS. Though the opera is hardly ‘new’ at a hundred years old, Ariadne sang the main female role, Lady Madeline, in the US premiere of Debussy’s unfinished opera La Chute de la Maison Usher in its most complete form, with the Opera Français de New York. Ariadne has premiered pieces by composers including Kaikhosru Sorabji, Caroline Shaw, Sofia Jernberg, Lukas Ligeti, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Elena Langer, Malik Gaines, and worked closely with Chris Cerrone, Kate Soper, and Ljova Zhurbin.

Other roles have included 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, the title role in the workshop of Aleksandra Vrebalov's Mileva.

Ariadne sang a "riveting" recital on the 2013 Resonant Bodies Festival, where she sang George Crumb's Apparition for the first time, in a performance deemed "dramatic and seductive" by the New York Times, and returned to Resonant Bodies in 2014 to premiere her pet commissioning project, DREAMS & NIGHTMARES for a sold-out room. On the 2014 FERUS Festival, she premiered Albert Behar's evening-length song-cycle Calligrammes, where she returned 2015 with DREAMS & NIGHTMARES. In the spring of 2016, Calligrammes struck again, with performances at Princeton University and Berkeley Art Museum in California. 

She sang the role of Jesus in A Gnostic Passion by Brad and Doug Balliett with Cantori New York, after having premiered Dafne, a cantata by Doug Balliett. She was invited back by Contemporaneous to premiere her long-time collaborator Ryan Chase's Carroll Madrigals, and sang in the premiere of West 4th New Music Collective's Moby Dick Oratorio with Contemporaneous at a MATA Interval event at Issue Project Room. She gave a recital at Copland House with Gregg Kallor and the Bruno Walter Auditorium with Matthew Odell, joined Cantata Profana to sing Purcell, Vaughan Williams, and Birtwistle, and sang in the workshop of David Avshalomov's The Pearl in a concert at UnSung 2014 in California.

In 2012 she sang 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 the first segment of Gabrielle Herbst's experimental 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, and 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.

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.

Ariadne founded Uncommon Temperament, a Manhattan-based baroque ensemble, with whom, among other things, she 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 has made more than six tours in North America and the Middle East, and has released a debut album. 

With Uncommon Temperament, SHUFFLE Concert, and the concert accordionist Merima Kljuco, she has done teaching/performing chamber music residencies at the Gettysburg College Conservatory, Odessa College, Cal State Chico, Mirman School, Philips Exeter Academy, and the Detroit Institute of Art.

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.

"...a voice of crystalline clarity and incision and a sparkling stage personality..."

-Coastal Scene

PRESS

QUOTES

"... [Atthis] became a vehicle for Ms. Greif’s raw, no-holds-barred performance…” 

“…a beautiful and physically fearless young singer ..." 

“…Fragile but focused, with searing top notes and dusky depths…” 

"ultimately, this was a solo high-wire act for Ms. Greif…” 

“…one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.” 

--Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times (in two articles). Atthis with Opera Cabal.

 

"And the singing deserved the audience’s full attention. Ariadne Greif, as haughty Adina, has tonally pleasing high notes and a delightful sparkling quality to both her singing and acting.” 

--Matthew J. Palm, The Orlando Sentinel. Elixir of Love with The Orlando Philharmonic.

"Opposite these men was Ariadne Greif as the sassy Adina. Greif's voice soars and trills though arias. She tells the story through all of her body language. In fact all of the lead performers fit their roles well."

--Kimberly Moy, Broadway World. Elixir of Love with The Orlando Philharmonic.

"The visual setting focuses mainly on the vocally-assured, visually-magnetic Greif, whose blood-red lips feel particularly sardonic as she moves slowly, dressed in plain pajamas, through the colorless, whitish-gray warehouse setting, past objects such as a chandelier lying on its side.."

--David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer. We Need to Talk, by Caroline Shaw with Opera Philadelphia.
 

"...Two very talented American-born singers took the bull by the horns - soprano Ariadne Greif and baritone Matthew [Morris]. They excelled (and looked very comfortable) in their respective roles. 

Greif radiated a rich and warm soprano voice, strong and accurate, while her stage presence was mesmerising to say the least. She put in a thoroughly commanding and effortless performance that thrilled a packed house while [Morris] equally matched her vocal skills and stage prowess in every conceivable way. They made a good double act..." 

"The scene in which Thérèse takes on the masculine role of Tirésias was marvellously entertaining and highlighted Greif as a born actress too." 

--Tony Cooper, East Anglian Daily Times. Les Mamelles de Tirésias with Aldeburgh Music.



"Ariadne Greif made a splendidly projected and vocally imposing Therese." 

--Peter Dickinson, Musical Opinion. Les Mamelles de Tirésias with Aldeburgh Music.



"Greif has a voice of crystalline clarity and incision and a sparkling stage personality."

--Gareth Jones, Coastal Scene. Les Mamelles de Tirésias with Aldeburgh Music.



"In equal measures intelligent, playful, ambitious and moving, the [festival] program, performed by three gifted sopranos, illuminated the shape-shifting power of the human voice. 

The most dramatic and seductive demonstration of this was the performance by Ariadne Greif, who possesses a luminous, expressive voice and an uncanny ability to imitate bird song. In George Crumb’s deeply affecting “Apparition,” bird calls and other wordless vocalizations link a song cycle on the subject of living and dying. With Jason Wirth spinning a gossamer web of unusual sounds on the piano, Ms. Greif was able to sing with a quiet intensity that approached prayerful ecstasy.

Before performing her own “Three Beloved, Old Songs, in a New Way” for soprano, toys and electronics, Ms. Greif enlisted the audience in a re-enactment of selected instructions from Yoko Ono’s “Grapefruit” (1964), including a reminder to breathe, instructions for folding a paper crane and a game of passing a whispered message from ear to ear. While listeners turned sheets of paper into odd approximations of winged creatures, she created hauntingly beautiful pieces with the help of a loop pedal, layering sighs, tongue clicks and whistled bird calls underneath melodies by Machaut, Monteverdi and Jean Baptiste de Bousset.

Her set ended with the charming “Two Selections From ‘Calligrammes,’ ” chansonlike settings of Apollinaire texts by Albert Behar, who accompanied Ms. Greif on accordion."

--Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times. Recital at Resonant Bodies Festival.
 

"An artist known for her fearless performances of raw emotionality." 

--Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times. "International Street Cannibals, Feasting on Schoenberg."

”As his long suffering show girl fiancée, Miss Adelaide, Ariadne Greif is a joy. She is a ditzy pleasure throughout and nails the classic “Adelaide’s Lament,” commonly known as “ A Person Could Develop a Cold.” Though the romance of Sky and Sarah drives the show, the relationship of Nathan and Adelaide provides the fun.”

--Bob Goepfert, WAMC Northeast Public Radio Midday Magazine. "A terrific “Guys and Dolls” at Opera Saratoga is fresh and fun."

“Greif was especially terrific with her New York City drawl. Her Hot Box number with her four showgirls, who were dressed in orange plumes, tons of sequins and a lot of bare skin was fabulous. Opera singers rarely get to dress down but these ladies seemed comfortable in a flashy but demure way.”

--Geraldine Freedman, The Daily Gazette. "Review: Opera Saratoga's "Guys and Dolls" is a smash hit."

"Ariadne Greif began her set with the darkly dazzling Apparition: Eight Elegiac Songs and Vocalises by George Crumb. Perfectly at home in its brooding world, Greif was riveting. Each line seemed to come from the bottom of her; she seemed to taste the ash of each bitter word. She felt its silences too, never letting a lull sap the crackling tension of her presence, while Jason Wirth teased a black aura from the amplified piano. She followed Crumb with a trio of “Beloved, Old Songs,” by Machaut, Monteverdi, and Bousset. These were presented in highly personal loop-pedal reinventions, in which wails become ground basses, gasps become grooves, and wineglasses and birds serenade the serenader. It’s a new direction for her that I hope she continues to explore." 

--Elliott Cole, Sequenza 21/. Recital at Resonant Bodies Festival.

"Greif’s piece is not precisely a composition, but I was captivated by its cleverness and the agile-voiced beauty of her performance. "

--Susan Scheid, Prufrock's Dilemma. Recital at Resonant Bodies Festival.
 

"A familiar face — and voice — to Orlando music fans helped close out the inaugural season of Alterity.co, Central Florida’s champion of contemporary composers.

Soprano Ariadne Greif, who has performed in the Orlando Philharmonic’s “Elixir of Love” and its “Women in Song” series, joined the Alterity Chamber Orchestra on Thursday night for a concert titled “Abandon Waiting.”

...Greif lent her exciting voice to Christopher Cerrone’s “The Pieces That Fall to Earth,” based on poetry by Kay Ryan. “This piece asks a singer to do everything she can do,” said the Brooklyn-based composer, who attended the concert. And indeed it did.

Greif was an outstanding choice for this musing on women’s thoughts, not only because of her vocal acrobatics but because of her flair for the dramatic. She doesn’t just sing, she performs.

“Should there be more? Should there be more?” she cried in the strong opening, laced with percussive bells, chimes, vibraphone and other mallet instruments. Later her voice rose to a commanding shriek, nimbly made shocking jumps and sank to a whisper, an effect that comes right to the edge of being a little too much." 

--Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel. Abandon Waiting with the Alterity Chamber Orchestra, 2018.

"Celebrated New York soprano Ariadne Greif is no stranger to Orlando stages or audiences of any stripe. In the last two years, Greif has performed with the Orlando Philharmonic in the operas The Magic Flute and Elixir of Love, as well as an incandescent solo turn as part of the Women in Song series at the Plaza Live.

On Thursday, the adventurous singer returns with a similarly fearless group of comrades: the 17-piece Alterity Chamber Orchestra. Grief will sing with Alterity on a performance of Christopher Cerrone's The Pieces That Fell to Earth, as part of the "Abandon Waiting" program of works by contemporary composers. The pairing of Greif and Alterity is a natural one: Both push at the boundaries of their respective crafts. Greif is a restless and prolific artist, continually innovating and transforming. Early exposure to the work of Diamanda Galas – "The first moment when I realized that you can take singing a lot farther than where it is now" – has led to a career seemingly dedicated to redefining the role of the opera singer into that of a modern interdisciplinary artist.

Greif is as comfortable with traditional works as she is performing pieces by sound-poet Kurt Schwitters, wrapping herself in duct tape for her part in Opera Cabal's Atthis or participating in the drag opera Chimera. Her schedule is a whirlwind. Later this year Greif will perform in her first Pierrot Lunaire, play the Resonant Bodies Festival in Australia, and perform a microtonal piece by David Gordon at the MATA Festival, among myriad other engagements. Orlando Weekly did our best to keep up with this singular artist..."

--Matthew Moyer, Orlando Weekly. Selections from "Avant Soprano Ariadne Greif Returns to Orlando". Abandon Waiting with the Alterity Chamber Orchestra, 2018.

"Enfin, Ariadne Greif, qui faisait son début à Carnegie Hall en mai, finissait d'ajouter une touche fantastique à un tableau déjà plus que convaincant. Spectre noir aux yeux relevés de fuchsia, elle flottait sur scène, tantôt sœur, séductrice ou goule alors que ses aigus élastiques et ronds remplissaient le Florence Gould Hall." 

"Last, Ariadne Greif, who made her debut at Carnegie Hall in May, added a fantastical touch to an already more than convincing tableau. Black specter with eyes outlined in fuchsia, she floated on stage, now sister, now seductress, now ghoul, while her elastic and round high notes filled Florence Gould Hall." 

--Thomas Deneuville, Classique Info. La chute de la Maison Usher with the Opéra Français de New York.


"...young and attractive..." 

--Anthony Tommasini, New York Times. La chute de la Maison Usher with the Opéra Français de New York.

"Greif, who sang an avant-garde piece by Georges Aperghis winningly, looks to be a boon for new music." 

--Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times. Aperghis Récitations pour voix seule at the 2011 Ojai Music Festival.

"Soprano Ariadne Greif, who served as the voice of Saint Catherine, displayed an impressive level of engagement, moving effectively between sung and spoken portions of the text while remaining firmly engaged in the drama itself." 

--Joel Schwindt, The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Matti Kovler's mini-mono-opera La Testa di Santa Caterina in Jordan Hall.

"...Ariadne Greif estampó su impronta personal en el multifacético grupo del poeta elegido por Britten. En vez de orquesta, la versión pianística exhibió complejidades que de otro modo quedan ocultas en la textura orquestal, una partitura ardua y laberíntica espléndidamente vertida por Marina Radiushina que rivalizó en calidad con la soprano. Aquella frase que se repite y que pinta el ciclo como ninguna – “Sólo yo tengo la llave de este desfile salvaje” – sirvieron a Greif como puntales de su personalísima interpretación de un ciclo a menudo cantado por voces masculinas y que adquiere inusitados matices a cargo de sopranos.

...Para los dúos Bei Männer y Pa-pa-pa-pa de La flauta mágica se le unió Greif en deliciosa intervención."

"Ariadne Greif stamped her own personal imprint on the multifaceted group of poems from the poet [Rimbaud] selected by Britten [Les Illuminations]. In the place of an orchestra, the piano version of the score exhibited complexities that in another mode would behidden in the orchestral texture, a difficult and labyrinthine score splendidly rendered by Marina Radiushina, who rivaled the soprano in quality. One phrase that repeats itself and that paints the cycle better than any other--"Only I hold the key to this savage parade"--served Greif like a prop for her extremely personal interpretation of a cycle frequently sung by male voices and that acquires unusual nuances in the charge of sopranos.

...For the duets "Bei Männern" and "Pa-pa-pa," Greif joined [baritone John Moore and pianist Marina Radiushina] in a delicious intervention."

--Sebastian Spreng, Miami Clasica. "'Amor y Joventud,' Talento Joven para Mainly Mozart". Britten's Les Illuminations and Mozart duets in recital with John Moore and Marina Radiushina, 2017.

"Weinberg’s writing fits Greif like a glove. Saturday saw an incredibly vulnerable, powerful performance from Greif, whipping from glassy-eyed and blissed-out to muttering and paranoid to somber to screaming."

"The production stood on the strong base of Miller’s direction, Eichten’s sensitivity, and Greif’s flexibility as singer and actor, bringing the visceral grounding needed to realize the nuances of Barizo’s text and the ever-shifting colors of Weinberg’s setting.”

--Tamzin Elliott, San Francisco Classical Voice. Alyssa Weinberg’s Isola at Long Beach opera, 2024.

“Greif’s strong, clear voice resonates and modulates with the often discordant and erratic string and electronic music (the latter by David Saldana), at one point commandingly reaching a high-pitched crescendo of crisis.”

Anita W. Harris. LA Theatrix. Alyssa Weinberg’s Isola at Long Beach Opera, 2024.

“Ariadne Greif is a beautiful singer and actress, and she and Eichten were brave to wade through, lie in the water and sand, and perform nude or semi-nude.”

—Jeff Slayton, LA Dance Chronicle. Alyssa Weinberg’s Isola at Long Beach Opera, 2024.

"La voix de la soprano Ariadne Greif a enchanté les passants..."

"...cette année, il a convié une soprano, l'Américaine Ariadne Greif.

Peu après 19 h 30, la voix gracieuse de la chanteuse d'opéra inonde le quartier et certains galeristes abandonnent même leurs visiteurs quelques instants pour profiter de ces voluptueuses mélodies."

--Sacha Rosset, Ouest-France. Strauss and Debussy songs at On Zoute in Dinard, France, 2017.

"Quand la voix lumineuse d'Ariadne Greif a empli la nef, l'ambiance a viré à la magie."

--Le Telegramme. "Festival Daniou. Un concert enchanteur". Shepherd on the Rock in Plouër-sur-Rance, France, 2017.

“Forward into the breach stepped soprano Ariadne Greif, who delivered a magnificent performance of the new work she learned while journeying to deliver it. Capturing the elements of the drama in both the narrated and sung portions of the work, at times humorous, elsewhere haunting, she held a presence that united and gave life to the two visionary women of O’Malley and Hutchinson, accompanied by the bold and dashing music provided by the quartet.”

—Stephen Martorella, Boston Music Intelligencer. “PUBLIQuartet Premieres Newport Commission.” Same day jump-in for a premiere of a new piece by Clarice Assad at Newport Classical.

"Soprano Ariadne Greif followed this with the evening’s most compelling vocal performance in “From Sleepless Nights;” despite being an oddly-placed emotional beat, the piece for soprano and cello was a sophisticated showcase of intervallic vocal control. Grief’s mid-range gravity convinced the audience that “this is what I have decided to do with my life,” and Caleigh Drane on cello wove in and out of solo and support, mixing Baroque ornaments with modern dexterity as she played legato and pizzicato simultaneously."

--Lana Norris, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. From Sleepless Nights on a Daniel Felsenfeld retrospective with the Nouveau Classical Project.

"Greif steals the show each time she shows up on this CD. She is simply sensational."

"Soprano Ariadne Greif makes a sultry appearance in a superb arrangement by Jonathan Keren of the famous bossa nova song, “Desafinado” (which means slightly out of tune, but no one here is ever, thankfully, out of tune!)"

--Arts Fuse. Susan Miron. CD Review for SHUFFLE Concert's new album.
 

"The performance concluded with the arrival of the soprano Ariadne Greif and two other musicians from the Knights, one playing a French horn. Taking up the poem with rival vivacity, Ms. Greif engaged Mr. Kentridge in an electrifying duet. More polished than any vintage Dada performance, and richer in freely accessible humor, Mr. Kentridge’s “Ursonate” nonetheless paid homage to its predecessors by demonstrating how helpful the language of absurdism can still be in addressing a world that makes no sense."

--NYTimes. Nancy Princenthal. Ursonate with William Kentridge, 2017.

"Back to William Kentridge. Just as he started sounding like just another boomer on a stage droning on about something you don’t understand, a woman in the audience got up and fiercely started shouting his words back at him. This was Ariadne Greif, a New York soprano who has gained glowing reviews in America for her roles in Baroque and contemporary works.

As she got on stage for a dialogue with Kentridge, so did a violinist and - why not - a tap dancer. The final 10 minutes were a pure spectacle to look at and listen to. The disruption was a comment on the spartanic way with which Schwitters treats his audience - and provided just the touch of diversity the evening needed. As an absurdist amuse, it boded well for the festival.“

--Luxembourg Times. Douwe Miedema. Ursonate with William Kentridge, 2021.

"The chorus/Jesus made its grand entrance with a startling call to John, who just as powerfully responded through soprano Ariadne Greif…Ariadne Greif, who first of all needs to be commended for bravely stepping in with a just a few days' notice, did not let anything like a very brief preparation time stop her from giving a fiercely committed performance, her supple and assertive voice ferociously rising above the chorus or harmoniously blending in. I thought she particularly distinguished herself in the mesmerizing aria "I Didn't Suffer", which had the immediately infectious power of a brilliant pop song while still projecting the haunting nature of unexplained divinity. " 

--Classical Music Rocks. A Gnostic Passion by Brad and Doug Balliett with Cantori New York.
 

"Ariadne Greif’s lush, powerful voice gorgeously illuminated the unabashedly poetic evocations of some of nature's many wonders while Jason Wirth readily provided understated but pitch-perfect accompaniment...The performance, which was essentially a profound meditation on life and death, was compelling for its unusual sounds, such as piano chord plucking and bird-like singing, and no less unusual arrangements, like silence being used in a most effective way. The effortless chemistry between Ariadne Greif's exquisitely expressive singing and Jason Wirth's endlessly adaptable playing vastly contributed to making the complex work organically flow and slowly turn into a fascinating experience." 

"From the ground-breaking Second Viennese School to endearing Broadway silliness, there is clearly nothing they cannot handle."

--Classical Music Rocks. Recital with Jason Wirth: Berg Sieben Frühe Lieder, Crumb Apparition, Sorabji Movement, Du Yun's "I must survive."

"Soprano Greif, praised by the New York Times for her “luminous, expressive voice,” drew on a wide range of emotions to brilliantly capture the bothersome mother and the not-too menacing witch."

--Penny Schwartz, The Times of Israel. Matti Kovler's Ami & Tami. 

"If this concert had one other star is was soprano Ariadne Greif. The vocal works here were more suitable constellations around Mr. Schoenberg. But the selections were, with few exceptions echt-Romantic, music which was pulling at the yokes of the diatonic scale, sometimes breaking through, but always retaining its passion."

"And she was the soprano to essay each one. Coming near to the hysteria of the poems, but always, always keeping hold of her stunning voice."

"Ms. Greif was not afraid to pull out the Romantic steps from Mr. Korngold, a Schoenberg student whose own genius was in opera and film. Nor did she hold back in the first version of Alban Berg’s Close Both My Eyes."

"Even the songs of Webern became dramatically intense, as sung by Mr. Greif, with pianist Conor Hanick. One thought of dodecaphonic tone-rows as bagatelles, little jewels which were held up somehow on their delicate strings."

"The last two movements were highlighted again by Ms. Greif. Her voice here was not ethereal. It was searing, throaty and sometimes with striking emotion.

Whatever the title “Air Schoenberg” might have meant, she helped it soar on wings of song, while the others of International Street Cannibals brought the mesmerized audience the extremes of fire, ice and frequently even warmth."

--Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet. Schoenberg String Quartet II and various Second Viennese School songs with the International Street Cannibals, 2017.

"As voluptuously sung by Greif, this colorful nightingale flew high on Late Romantic tradition..."

"And then all hell – or at least tonality – broke lose during the last two movements, during which Greif brought her blazingly expressive singing to the two heart-wrenching poems anchoring them. Bold and insightful, the performance strongly emphasized the intrinsic beauty and the emotional resonance of the game-changing quartet."

"The last work on the program was Franz Schubert's animated song "Erlkönig". Based on a famous poem by Goethe, which was itself inspired by a Scandinavian folktale, this four-minute ballad shows an inordinate sense of drama and impressive compositional sophistication from the 18-year-old youngster that Schubert was at the time. The sharply defined four characters gave Greif a priceless opportunity to display her remarkable gift for spellbinding narrative and on-the-spot shifts in rhythmical nuances."

--Classical Music Rocks. Schoenberg String Quartet II and various Second Viennese School songs with the International Street Cannibals, 2017.

"Soprano Ariadne Greif played THREE, dressed as a maid but acting like a housekeeper with a decidedly rebellious streak. Also presented with a rangy role, Greif sang quite beautifully, particularly in ensemble passages, where she blended seamlessly with her colleagues."

--Christian Carey, Musical America. "A New Gertrude Stein Opera: Chutzpah Rules." Six. Twenty. Outrageous. by Daniel Thomas Davis, directed and designed by Doug Fitch, with American Opera Projects, 2018.

”Their maid, Three, was the very funny Ariadne Greif, whose soprano voice rang intensely in the small space." 

--Anne E. Johnson, Classical Voice America. "Unparsable Lines + Beautiful Music = 6. 20. Outrageous." Six. Twenty. Outrageous. by Daniel Thomas Davis, directed and designed by Doug Fitch, with American Opera Projects, 2018.

"...And the dusting, dancing, most physical maidservant, Ariadne Greif exaggerating, electrically going up to the top of the soprano range..."

--Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet. Six. Twenty. Outrageous. by Daniel Thomas Davis, directed and designed by Doug Fitch, with American Opera Projects, 2018.

"…soaring operatic voice…Ariadne’s spectacular finale was a spine chilling rendition of Schubert’s Erlkonig and the highlight of the evening..."

--Mark Pigott, Sydney Arts Guide. Staged concert for Resonant Bodies Australia and Sydney Chamber Opera at Carriageworks in Sydney, 2018.

“Guest soprano Ariadne Greif made quite an entrance in a fluffy pink tutu costume for John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. She really delivered in this music: engaging, committed, and fearless. Her voice had a wonderful mellow middle register as well as expressive high notes….the third song [Kliphuis}, the boldly theatrical “Rat in my room,” was a true highlight of the night (maybe of the year), with Greif and the ensemble absolutely rocking out. It’s got to be one of the most exciting contemporary art songs out there.”

--Brendan Fox, Milwaukee Shepherd Express. Harbison and Kliphuis with Present Music Milwaukee, 2023.

"…her voice is captivating..."

--Judith Malafronte, Opera News. Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Bare Opera, 2018.

"…Griffin’s chamber arrangement for Momenta, plus an additional viola and harp, provided an intimacy over which Ariadne Greif’s clear soprano could soar…"

--Alyssa Kayser-Hirsh, I Care if You Listen. Liebestod with Momenta Quartet, 2018.

"From the composer’s Five Lieder, soprano Ariadne Greif performed ‘Ich wandle unter Blume’ and ‘Laue Sommernacht’ with a perceptive magnetism, framing the delicate balance of complex harmonies and distinct melodies that make Schindler-Mahler’s works so gripping. Greif’s bold yet smooth voice entered and blossomed glowingly, as if emerging directly from the composer’s miniature worlds of storytelling genius."

--Daniele Sahr, Seen and Heard International: “In New York, a Perceptive Trio Explores Schoenberg’s Influence”. Dichterliebe, Alma Mahler, and Early Alban Berg with Conor Hanick, Anna Tsukervanik, and the International Street Cannibals.

"...voraciously versatile and monstrously talented..."

"Ryan, as is evident in the vocal writing in this most recent of their collaborations, has become familiar with the elasticity and ample technical capabilities of Ariadne’s voice. He captures the bizarre nature of the text of the Jabberwocky with deft precision, sharp wit, and staggering intricacy largely through the breadth of unusual vocal effects for which he calls throughout the score. These effects include stuttering consonants, long slides, rapid-fire glottal stops, speaking, gurgling, lip and tongue trills, and even a choking sound. Needless to say, these are far beyond typical vocal techniques that are required in standard repertoire, but Ariadne has risen to the challenge that the composer laid out specifically for her. She navigates this complex score not only with ease, but also an unbridled enthusiasm and a taste for the dramatic."

--David Bloom, Contemporaneous Blog. Ryan Chase's Jabberwocky. 
 

"The program also included a Monteverdi setting of Psalm 150, which Ariadne Greif sang energetically if perhaps with slightly more power than the circumstances (a small ensemble and a small hall) required." 

--Allan Kozinn, New York Times. Monteverdi's Psalm 150 sung at age 16. Bwahahaha!

DOWNLOAD PRESS PHOTOS

VIDEO

 Watch more videos