Elizabeth DeShong

Singer Elizabeth DeShong has developed an international career despite having a voice that does not fall neatly into traditional categories. She is generally classed as a mezzo-soprano, but "My most specific label would probably be dramatic coloratura contralto," she told the San Francisco Opera (August 2022). In 2010, DeShong received the Washington National Opera's Artist of the Year award for her performance in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. In 2011, she made her recording debut on a video recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Op. 123. In 2016, DeShong appeared on the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's recording of Handel's Messiah, HWV 56. She was featured in 2023 on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Contemporary American Composers album, conducted by Riccardo Muti. During the 2022-2023 season, DeShong created the role of Octavia in John Adams' new opera Antony and Cleopatra at the San Francisco Opera.