Nancy Argenta: Difference between revisions

'''Nancy Maureen Argenta''' (born '''Nancy Maureen Herbison''' on January 17, 1957) is a [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[soprano]] singer, best known for performing music from the pre-classical era. She has won international acclaim, and is considered byone many asof the leading [[Handel]] sopranosopranos of her time.

She was born in [[Nelson, British Columbia|Nelson]], [[British Columbia]], [[Canada]].

She spent her early years in the settlement of [[Argenta, British Columbia|Argenta]], from which she later took her professional name (to avoid being mistaken for another Canadian soprano, Nancy Hermiston.)<ref name=cb>{{cite book|title=The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada, 1985–|date=July 29, 2007|url=httphttps://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.comca/en/article/nancy-argenta-emc/|author=Tamara Bernstein|author2=Betty Nygaard King|chapter=Argenta, Nancy}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Nancy Argenta (Soprano) - Short Biography |url=https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Argenta-Nancy.htm |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=www.bach-cantatas.com}}</ref>

By that time, she was frequently making trips to [[Vancouver|Vancouver, British Columbia]], so she could hear musical events and have additional singing lessons. After graduation from high school in 1975, she was a student of Jacob Hamm in [[Vancouver]] and of Martin Chambers at the [[University of Western Ontario]], graduating in 1980. The same year she won 1st prize in the [[Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté]] Competition. After further training with Jacqueline Richard in [[Düsseldorf]] from 1980 to 1981, and with [[Gérard Souzay]], in 1982 she settled in [[London, England]] and completed her studies with [[Vera Rozsa]],<ref name="cb"/> and Sir [[Peter Pears]].

Her professional operatic debut was in two roles in [[Rameau]]'s [[Hippolyte et Aricie]] at the 1983 Aix-en-Provence Festival. In 1990 she received the Virginia P. Moore Prize, an annual award from the Canada Council for development of the career of a young Canadian classical musician.<ref name=":0" />

She is in high demand toArgenta performperforms with period instrument ensembles. These have included the [[Academy of Ancient Music]] and [[The English Concert]], [[La Petite Bande]], and such prominent conductors as [[Trevor Pinnock]], [[Seiji Ozawa]], [[Christopher Hogwood]], [[John Eliot Gardiner]], [[Roger Norrington]] and [[Sigiswald Kuijken]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Nancy Argenta |url=https://vcm.bc.ca/faculty-members/nancy-argenta/ |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=Victoria Conservatory of Music |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Nancy Argenta {{!}} Kennedy Center |url=https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/a/ao-az/nancy-argenta/ |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=The Kennedy Center |language=en}}</ref> She is particularly noted for her performances of the vocal music of the two leading figures in English music during the Baroque era: [[George Frideric Handel]] and [[Henry Purcell]]. When she returned to the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1990, it was to sing in the latter's [[The Fairy-Queen|The Fairy Queen]]. She has performed most of the major Handel operas and oratorios. She also sings all the large-scale [[Bach]] choral/vocal works ([[Mass in B minor]], the [[Passions (Bach)|Passions]], the [[Christmas Oratorio]], and several of the [[Bach cantata|cantata]]s).

In the classical era she is noted for performances of [[Haydn]] masses (some of which she has recorded with Pinnock and [[Richard Hickox]]), Haydn's Creation, the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Despina in [[Così fan tutte]]. However, she sings music of all eras. She has recorded [[Schubert]] for the Virgin Classics label, and has sung in performances of music by [[Mahler]] and [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]].

She currently lives in [[Victoria, British Columbia]], after having England as her home for much of her career. Argenta teaches at the [[Victoria Conservatory of Music]] and regularly performs in Victoria with the Victoria Baroque Players, in the Early Music Society of the Islands series, in her own oratorio workshop concerts and other venues.<ref name=":1" />

[[Category:Canadian femaleoperatic singerssopranos]]

[[Category:Canadian operaperformers singersof early music]]

[[Category:CanadianWomen sopranosperformers of early music]]

[[Category:Performers20th-century ofCanadian earlywomen musicsingers]]

[[Category:Operatic21st-century sopranosCanadian women singers]]