Mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider has been recognized for her “gleaming vocalism” (Boston Globe), “star acting” (Urban Milwaukee), and “superbly clear diction and warmly burnished timbre” (South Florida Classical Review). In demand for performances of classical and contemporary opera alike, Ms. Crider created the role of Alma in Keeril Makan and Jay Scheib’s Persona in its world premiere with the Beth Morrison Projects and later at LA Opera, about which the New York Times remarked, “Amanda Crider made a winsome, vulnerable, and when the story turns dark, wildly volatile Alma,” and San Francisco Classical Voice declared, “Crider’s performance was a tour-de-force for its sustained vocal luster, dramatic variation, and sheer amount of singing.”

 

Performances in the 2024-2025 season include Mezzo Soloist with New World Symphony in music of Ravel, Delage and Copland, Mezzo Soloist with Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in Handel's Messiah and Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Mezzo Soloist with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park in Beethoven's Mass in C, and multiple appearances with Bach Vocal Artists and the GRAMMY® nominated ensemble Seraphic Fire. Performances in the 2023-24 season included soloist in Mozart's Requiem with Kalamazoo Symphony, Messiah and Mozart's Coronation Mass with Jacksonville Symphony, the role of Malcolm in Rossini's La Donna del Lago with Resonance Works Pittsburgh, Rossini's Stabat Mater and David Lang's little match girl passion with Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, and multiple appearances with Seraphic Fire. Performances in the 2022-23 season included the role of Isolier in Le Comte Ory with Opera Southwest, Mezzo Soloist in Handel's Messiah with Apollo's Fire and the Helena Symphony, Second Lady in The Magic Flute with Opera Orlando, and multiple appearances with Seraphic Fire, including Haydn's Creation in performances with the Fort Worth Symphony under the baton of Robert Spano.

 

Most recently, Crider performed as Mezzo soloist In Mozart's Requiem with Amarillo Symphony, Elgin Symphony and Winter Park Bach Festival, in addition to appearances with White Snake Projects as Penelope in the world premiere of Mary Prescott's opera, A Survivor's Odyssey. In the 2020-21 season, she appeared with Apollo’s Fire in Allure: The Three Amandas with sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Amanda Powell. Additional recent appearances included a debut with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Jacksonville Symphony and a duo recital with countertenor, Reginald Mobley.

 

Crider has been seen as the title character in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Florentine Opera, a role that she “wielded with beauty and charisma” (Voix des arts). Boston University News Service declared her “the true star” for her leading role in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek, and Opera News lauded her “beautiful work” and “agility” playing the English Teacher in Gregory Spears and Kathryn Walat’s 2019 recording of Paul’s Case, a role which Crider premiered with the Prototype Festival and Urban Arias in 2013.

 

A busy soloist and recitalist, Crider has appeared regularly with Seraphic Fire, Apollo’s Fire, the Bach Festival Society of Florida, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, the Symphony Orchestras of Eugene, Savannah, Charlotte, Syracuse, Charleston, Amarillo, Southwest Michigan and Jacksonville; and Philharmonic Orchestras of Louisiana, Carnegie Mellon and Greeley. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in the fall of 2007 singing as mezzo soloist in Messiah with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and returned the following season as soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. She has performed as a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bach’s B minor Mass, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Britten’s Phaedra, Bach’s St. John Passion, Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony and Ravel’s Chansons Madécasses, and has been a featured recitalist on the Trinity Church Concerts at One Series and with Five Boroughs Music Festival. Of her New World Symphony performance of de Falla’s El Amor Brujo in 2014, South Florida Classical Review wrote, “Amanda Crider’s smoky mezzo-soprano assayed the flamenco vocal solos with gutsy abandon.”

 

Ms. Crider’s first foray into the operatic world as L’Enfant in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges at the Tanglewood Music Center was hailed by Opera News as “delightful,” with the Boston Globe stating she sang with “ineffable tenderness.” Since then, she has delighted audiences in the roles of Angelina (La Cenerentola),  Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Sesto (Handel Giulio Cesare), the title role in Carmen, Nellie Forbush (South Pacific), Diana (Orpheus in the Underworld), Speranza/Pastore #3 (Monteverdi L’Orfeo), Siébel (Faust), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Laurey (Oklahoma) and Mallika (Lakmé) at companies including the Dallas Opera, Orlando Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Knoxville Opera, Opera Omaha, Nevada Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and Eugene Opera, Anchorage Opera and Opera Boston, New York City Opera, Castleton Festival and Glimmerglass Opera.

 

Ms. Crider was a grant recipient from the Pittsburgh Concert Society, and a finalist in both the Joy in Singing Debut Artist Competition and the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition. She was a finalist in the José Iturbi International Voice Competition, the 2nd Place Winner in the Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year Competition, Recipient of the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition David and Ingrid Kosowsky Award, Finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition and Center for Contemporary Opera Competition, and a Recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. Crider was a 2022 Alumni Enterprise Award from Music Academy of the West, and is the Executive Director of Roomful of Teeth.