Nicole Percifield
Mezzo Contralto
About
Canadian Mezzo-Contralto Nicole Percifield has featured in concert performances with New Haven Symphony (Messiah), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (D. Scarlatti’s Salve Regina and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater), and the Minnesota Orchestra. Prized for her “rich alto”, Percifield recently performed Elgar’s Sea Pictures with North Bay Symphony under conductor Joshua Wood, workshopped Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with Mandle Philharmonic, and sang Beethoven’s Mass in C with the UTSO under conductors Uri Mayer and Jamie Hillman. A skilled interpreter of art song, in 2024 Percifield won the 2024 Jim and Charlotte Norcop Prize in Song, featured as a Fellow with Toronto Summer Music, and performed at the Académie Francis Poulenc in Tours, France.
A graduate of Yale Opera, Percifield has worked with Minnesota Opera (Salome, Faust), Santa Fe Opera (Le Nozze di Figaro, Rigoletto), Central City Opera (Werther, Cendrillon), the Banff Centre (Die Zauberflöte), and Opera Theatre of St. Louis (Ghosts of Versailles). She was a finalist at the Metropolitan Opera New England Regionals and performed Debussy’s Chansons Baudelaire at Carnegie Hall with Yale in New York. Percifield recently featured on CBC’s Tapestry program, performing and speaking about composer Gavin Fraser’s work, Shared Isolation.
Percifield is currently pursuing her doctorate at the University of Toronto with Wendy Nielsen, where she is a recipient of the Joseph-Armand CGS Doctoral Scholarship. She can be heard singing the roles of Cathleen (Riders to the Sea), and Hostess (At the Boar’s Head), recorded live at the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, Poland. The International Classical Music Awards nominated the recording for Best Opera Album, 2017.
“Nicole Percifield (Art of Song Fellow), sang Elgar’s Sabbath Morning at Sea from Sea Pictures, Op. 37, supported by Steven Philcox on the piano. Percifield’s voice has marvellous colour and depth that suited the emotions of the poem. Her phrasing evoked a sense of the sea waves, while still having forward direction.”
