“…one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances of recent times…” – New York Times

Ariadne Greif, praised for her “luminous, expressive voice,” “searing top notes,” and “dusky depths,” (NY Times), began her opera career as a ‘boy’ soprano in Los Angeles and with LA Children’s Chorus at the LA Opera, making an adult debut singing Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She has 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, and a “sassy” and “sparkling” Adina in The Elixir of Love with the Orlando Philharmonic, to Sappho in Atthis by Georg Friedrich Haas, which the New York Times called “a solo high-wire act for Ms. Greif,” “a vehicle for Ms. Greif’s raw, no-holds-barred performance,” and “one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.”

She has premiered over a hundred new works and more than a dozen new operas, including, in 2021, We Need To Talk by Caroline Shaw and Anne Carson for Opera Philadelphia, and Table Manners, by Sheree Clement, released as a film. She created a twenty-composer commissioning project, called Dreams & Nightmares, subject of a forthcoming documentary called Only a Dream. Ariadne has also premiered pieces by composers including Kaikhosru Sorabji, Sofia Jernberg, Lukas Ligeti, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Elena Langer, Malik Gaines, and even an unfinished opera by Claude Debussy, and worked closely with Chris Cerrone, Kate Soper, Ljova Zhurbin, and Gabriel Kahane. Future opera projects include the premiere of Kate Soper’s opera The Romance of the Rose, 1619, a new opera by Joseph C. Phillips Jr., How Gulliver Returned Home in A Manner that was Not Very Direct, by Victoria Bond, and The Companion, by Robert Paterson.

She has performed with William Kentridge in his production of Ursonate in performances presented by the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the Performa Festival in New York, and at Den Norske Opera as part of the Ultima Festival in Oslo, where she was invited back for September 2020 and 2022 with a project of her own called Bird Party. She performed a “soaring…spine-chilling” staged recital featuring music of Kaija Saariaho, Ryan Chase, and Shawn Jaeger in Australia with the Sydney Chamber Opera at the Resonant Bodies Festival (Sydney Arts Guide). Recent performances included Mahler Symphony No. 4, Carmina Burana, Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Mozart Requiem, Mozart Vespers K.321, Babbit’s A Solo Requiem, opera gala concerts at the Sarasota Opera House. She sang Musetta in La Bohème with The Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and Papagena in The Magic Flute with The Orlando Philharmonic. She has performed concerts of chamber music in Weill Hall, The Little Island, The Park Avenue Armory, The Ojai Festival, The Meidan Festival, and across the US, Canada, France, Finland, and the Middle East, including more than 200 concerts with Ensemble Mélange, and in appearances with Lukas Ligeti, Gabriel Kahane, Pekka Kuusisto, The Knights, JACK Quartet, among others.

” a beautiful and physically fearless young singer… “ – New York Times