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West Campus Opera-Themed Dinner with Dawn Upshaw (GRAMMY-award winning soprano; A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell)
🗓️ Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026
⏰ 6:00pm 📍Keeton House
House Host: Maria Park (Associate Professor, Dept. of Art; AAP)
Students are invited to join A.D. White Professor-at-Large Dawn Upshaw for a special "Opera Night" House Dinner featuring an opera-themed menu specially curated by the House Chef.
The evening offers an opportunity for informal conversation and engagement with one of the world's most celebrated classical musicians and educators.
Following dinner:
🎶 7:15-8:30pm | Listening Party, Keeton House Annex
Following dinner, Upshaw will host a Listening Party featuring works and artists that have influenced her musical tastes and shaped her remarkable career, with selections ranging from Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder to Stephen Sondheim, W.A. Mozart, and Kaija Saariaho.
Dawn Upshaw is an internationally acclaimed soprano, five-time GRAMMY Award winner, and the first vocalist to receive a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2007). Celebrated for the warmth, intimacy, and expressive intelligence of her singing, Upshaw has forged an extraordinary career spanning opera, concert performance, recital, contemporary music, and higher education leadership.
She has appeared on the world’s leading stages, including nearly 300 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in 1984. In recognition of her lasting artistic and cultural impact, Upshaw was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2008) and inducted into the Opera Hall of Fame (2020) as part of its inaugural class.
Upshaw is also widely respected as an educator, mentor, and institutional leader. Since 2014, she has served as Head of the Vocal Arts Program at the Tanglewood Music Center. She was the founding Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music (2006). In 2025, she joined the faculty of Yale University as Professor in the Practice of Music, where she teaches vocal repertoire and performance.
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Event venue
William T. Keeton House, 4 Forest Park Ln, Ithaca, NY 14853-5170, United States
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.