The Cobb County Center for Excellence in the Performing Arts at Pebblebrook High School will host internationally acclaimed soprano, Indra Thomas on Halloween.
Thomas will conduct two master classes during the day as well as perform for the students. Her performance will include excerpts from her recently-released album, Great Day! Indra Thomas Sings Spirituals recorded on the Delos label, as well as others she has performed at many of the world’s great opera houses.
Thomas, a minister’s daughter, was born and raised in Atlanta. Her mother, a gifted amateur singer, served as young Indra’s first voice teacher, introducing her to spirituals at an early age. While in her teens, she first came to widespread attention when she sang “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in the funeral scene of the Academy Award-winning film Driving Miss Daisy. She is a graduate of Shorter College and the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts; her primary teachers include John Ramsaur and Bill Schumann.
She has since taken the musical world by storm. In the wake of her professional debut at Carnegie Hall (in the Verdi Requiem), her work has been marked by rapturous public and critical acclaim. She soon blossomed into one of the world’s truly great operatic and concert sopranos, with a particular affinity for Verdi roles.
In constant demand, her performances are consistently distinguished by the striking vocal beauty, technical perfection and deep emotional impact of her singing—as well as her smoldering intensity as a singing actress.
Thomas has appeared at many of the world’s great opera houses, such as the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera; also leading venues in France, Germany and Spain. Among numerous top orchestras with which she has appeared are the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra—as well as leading ensembles in Paris, the Netherlands, Japan, Finland, South Korea, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Boston, Cleveland and Detroit.
She has graced several famous music festivals, to include Caramoor, Bregenz, and Colmar; she has toured widely, and has been featured in many radio and television broadcasts. Her signature Verdi roles are in Aida, Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo and Otello – as well as the Requiem: her favorite Verdi work. She has also appeared to great acclaim in operas by Puccini and Donizetti, among others. Her favored non-operatic music encompasses Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, Britten’s War Requiem, Tippet’s A Child of Our Time, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, R. Strauss’s Four Last Songs, and Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” (No. 8). She has recorded for NPR, as well as the LSO Live and Naxos labels; her work has garnered both an EMMY and a GRAMMY nomination.
