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Since her sensational debut as the title role in Kat’a Kabanova at the 2014 US Spoleto Festival, where the Wall Street Journal praised her “big, potent soprano” and the New York Times her “excellent performance,” California-born Betsy Horne has quickly established herself as an internationally-acclaimed soprano to watch and hear.
Recent exciting projects include her debut at the Salzburger Landestheater as Ariadne and performances as Sieglinde, Third Norn, Freia, and Gutrune in Uwe-Eric Laufenberg’s Ring at Staatstheater Wiesbaden. Betsy debuted at the Bayreuth Festival in 2023 as a Flower Maiden and Knappe and will return there in the 2024 festival season. Her debut as Ellen Orford at the Oldenburg State Theater took place in 2024.
After beginning her career in Wiesbaden as a mezzo-soprano, Betsy was a resident artist at Landestheater Coburg, where she developed her soprano repertoire with a wide variety of challenging roles including Elsa, Mimi, Kat'a, Desdemona and DIE CSARDASFÜRSTIN. In 2012 the Bavarian government awarded her the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis. She has since returned to Wiesbaden for performances as Elisabeth in TANNHÄUSER, Eva in DIE MEISTERSINGER, and for the RING CYCLE.
Past seasons have seen her first performances as Strauss’ heroine ARABELLA at Oper Leipzig under Prof. Ulf Schirmer, who also conducted Betsy Horne’s successful debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as the Marschallin in DER ROSENKAVALIER in April 2016. Betsy returned to Klagenfurt early 2017 for a new production of OTELLO under Alexander Soddy, after having sung Madame Lidoine as well as her first performances of the Marschallin there. Forays into the Russian repertoire were made with Emma in Mussorgsky’s CHOWANTSCHINA at Theater Basel and as the sea princess Volkhova in Rimsky-Korsakov’s SADKO at Opera Vlaanderen in Gent, Belgium. Returning to Opera Vlaanderen in early 2019, she gave her debut as Die Tochter in CARDILLAC under Dimitri Jurowski.
Concert work has included projects with the Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz and the Stuttgarter Philharmonie. At the final concert of the Beethovenfest 2017 in Bonn, Betsy sang Chausson’s POEME DE L'AMOUR ET DE LA MER with the Bamberger Symphoniker under Jakob Hrůša. Betsy was featured at a gala at the Seoul Arts Center with Samuel Youn and has sung the VIER LETZTE LIEDER, Brahms' REQUIEM, Mendelssohn’s ELIAS, Barber's KNOXVILLE SUMMER OF 1915, Wagner's WESENDONCK-LIEDER, and Hindemith’s HIN UND ZURÜCK at concerts in Germany and elsewhere. Betsy Horne is featured in the title role in the only complete recording of Kalman’s GRÄFIN MARIZA with the Bayerischer Rundfunk.
Betsy Horne was awarded the Dorothea Glatt Prize singing Elsa and Elisabeth at the International Competition for Wagner Voices in Karlsruhe in 2009. This success was followed by invitations to sing at the International Wagner Convention in Stralsund and as a featured soloist at a gala concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Wagner Society of Bayreuth. Betsy Horne has been awarded several other prestigious prizes including first place at the Neustädter Meistersinger Voice Competition and the Vera and Volker Doppelfeld Foundation Prize at the International Chamber Opera Schloss Rheinsberg. In the Fall of 2007, a jury including Christa Ludwig, Brigitte Fassbaender and Charles Spencer awarded Betsy Horne the second prize at the 5th annual Hilde Zadek International Voice Competition at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.
Betsy Horne earned vocal degrees with distinction at Cottey College and at the University of Kansas before being awarded a grant to study at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz with tenor Andreas Karasiak. Parallel to her studies, she appeared at the Oper Köln, Staatstheater Mainz, Maifestspiele Wiesbaden, and in leading roles at the Schwetzinger Festspiele and the Potsdamer Festspiele Sanssouci.
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