Catherine Lau (Voice)

Soprano Catherine Laidler-Lau has enjoyed the success of opera and concert appearances from New York to as far away as Hong Kong.  One Hong Kong Entertainment Times critic noted one of her appearances there by calling hers “an agile and captivating voice, as much at home with coloratura as in the darker hues of romantic melodies.”  Ms. Lau made her solo concert debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn, by stepping in on eight hours’ notice to sing two performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.  Shortly thereafter, she made return engagements with the HKPO as soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music To A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and another return appearance featured arias from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in “The Hong Kong Philharmonic Salutes Amadeus”,  to near-sellout crowds at the Hong Kong Coliseum.  She has sung the opera roles of Marguerite (Faust), Mimi (La Boheme), and Violetta (La Traviata) with the Manhattan Opera Ensemble; Micaela (Carmen) with the Brooklyn Opera Ensemble; and Fiordiligi (Cosi Fan Tutte), Gilda (Rigoletto), and Pamina (Die Zauberflote).  

A frequent concert and oratorio soloist and recitalist in the New York area, she has performed such works as Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate; Mass in c minor, Coronation Mass, and Verperae Solennes de Confessore; Requiem (Faure), Mass in b minor; Cantatas 51 & 52 (“Wedding” / J.S. Bach); Lord Nelson Mass (Haydn), Stabat Mater (Pergolesi), Ein deutsches Requiem (Brahms), Elijah (Mendelssohn), and King David (Honneger), and recitals featuring both sacred and secular works.  She has been soloist at venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Trinity Church & St. Paul’s Chapel,  Cathedral of the Incarnation (for the centennial of Garden City), and with groups such as Sinfonia Pacifica, Ridotto Ensemble, Aspen Music Festival Opera, Amor Artis, and New York Choral Society.  During the 2018-19 season, Ms. Lau was Artist-In-Residence with the Long Island Choral Society.

Ms. Lau has studied with such mentors as Leslie Guinn (University of Michigan/Aspen Music Festival), Richard Miller (Oberlin Conservatory of Music/Salzburg Music Festival), and Doris Yarrick-Cross (Yale).  She has also taught and performed as a faculty member at the SUNY Stony Brook Summer Music Festival, and is a returning guest artist for the Oyster Bay Music Festival, giving master classes in singer’s diction.