Alyson Cambridge

Alyson Cambridge is an American operatic soprano whose work spans opera, classical song, jazz, the American Songbook, and popular music. She was born and raised in Arlington, Virginia, to a father of Guyanese heritage who works as a principal economist at the World Bank and a mother of Danish-Norwegian descent who works at the National Academy of Sciences. Cambridge grew up in a household where opera and symphonic music, Caribbean genres including calypso and reggae, and popular artists such as Whitney Houston and Madonna all featured prominently. She attended Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where she played varsity soccer and kept her classical vocal studies largely private. Her first voice lesson took place at the Levine School of Music at age twelve, following a friend's suggestion after hearing her playfully imitate operatic singing.

Cambridge pursued a double degree at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, earning a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology with a concentration in pre-law, both with honors. She decided during her senior year to commit fully to an operatic career and subsequently studied for a master's degree in opera at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Her competition record established her early in the field. In 2003, while still a student at Curtis, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, becoming the youngest Grand Prize winner in the history of that competition. The prize included admission to the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and $15,000 toward her education and career. That same year she received First Prize in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Voice Competition, and also made her first professional appearance in Washington as Adina in L'elisir d'amore with the Wolf Trap Opera Company. In 2004 she received the George London Foundation Award, and in 2008 she received the Régine Crespin Award at the Elardo International Opera Competition.

Cambridge made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2004 as Frasquita in Georges Bizet's Carmen. She subsequently appeared at the Met in additional roles including Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore, a Flower Maiden in Parsifal, Karolka in Jenůfa, Crobyle in Thaïs, and Bianca in La Rondine. Beyond the Met, she portrayed Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Juliette in Romeo et Juliette at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. During the 2009–10 season she sang Musetta in La Bohème at Portland Opera, Clara in Porgy and Bess at the Washington National Opera, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Opera Cleveland. The 2010–11 season brought debuts as Violetta with the Polish National Opera and as Donna Elvira at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. In 2011–12 she debuted as Donna Elvira with Deutsche Oper Berlin, as Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann and Julie in Show Boat with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and as Mimi in La Bohème with the Hungarian National Opera. She reprised the role of Julie in a 2013 Washington National Opera production of Show Boat and has additionally performed with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Cleveland, Atlanta Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Cambridge began her career as a light lyric soprano, developed into a full lyric soprano, and has more recently begun transitioning toward a spinto soprano voice.

Her concert work has included Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with conductor Sir Simon Rattle and the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, Joseph Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Johannes Brahms's A German Requiem and Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Stamford Symphony, and the Porgy and Bess Suite with Peter Nero and both the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Symphony. She has given solo recitals and concerts in New York, Washington, D.C., Barbados, and Hawaii. In 2014 she performed on the Soul Train Music Awards on BET, at the Christmas Concert for the Troops at the Kennedy Center, and in a recital before the United States Supreme Court sponsored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Cambridge has released three recordings. Her debut album, From the Diary of Sally Hemings, recorded with pianist Lydia Brown and released in February 2010 on the White Pine Music label, is a song cycle composed by William Bolcom with text by playwright Sandra Seaton. It premiered at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Her second album, Until Now, released in 2016, draws on jazz standards and American popular song. A third album, Sisters in Song, recorded with soprano Nicole Cabell and the Lake Forest Symphony, was scheduled for release in September 2018.

In 2018 Cambridge appeared on Broadway as one of the lead vocalists in Rocktopia, a production at the Broadway Theatre that combines twentieth-century rock music with classical works. She has also served as a brand ambassador for Swiss luxury watch and jewelry designer Chopard and for fashion designers Vivienne Tam and Monika Chiang. Cambridge lives in New York City.