Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux rose to prominence with a string of competition victories in 2000, the most important of which was first prize at the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Competition. Her triumph there was further magnified when she was awarded the special prize for lieder performance. Since that time, she has regularly appeared in concert and on the operatic stage, as well as in numerous recordings. Lemieux's repertory is broad, taking in songs/lieder by Brahms, Mahler, and Enescu, among others, as well as a range of operatic roles from Gluck, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and a growing list of others. Her concert and sacred repertory has tended to favor the Baroque and early Classical periods, encompassing music by Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, Mozart, and many others. In 2019, Lemieux issued Mer(s), performing music by Elgar, Chausson, and Joncières. She returned in 2020 on a star-studded recording of Handel's Agrippina.