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), North Bay Symphony (Elgar’s Sea Pictures), Mandle Philharmonic (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), the UTSO (Beethoven’s Mass in C), the Hart House Singers (Messiah), Ammolite Opera (The Christmas Messiah - premiere), Deep River Symphony (Carmen, Samson et Dalila), and Minnesota Orchestra.
Prized for her “rich alto”, Percifield recently performed Handel's Messiah with the Elmer Iseler Singers and Lydia Adams, workshopped Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with Mandle Philharmonic, and sang Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Banff Centre under conductor Alexander Weimann and director Joel Ivany.
A skilled interpreter of art song, Percifield received the 2024 Norcop Prize in Song, was a 2024 Fellow with Toronto Summer Music and Académie Francis Poulenc, performed Debussy’s Chansons Baudelaire at Carnegie Hall, and featured on CBC's Tapestry program, performing and speaking about composer Gavin Fraser’s new work, Shared Isolation. Her chamber repertoire includes Brahm's Zwei Gesänge, Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, Frank Bridge's Three Songs for voice, viola and piano, Ravel's Chansons madécasses, Loeffler's Quatre poèmes, and Margaret Sutherland's The Orange Tree.
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 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.
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.
“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.”
