Jennifer Johnson Cano
A naturally gifted singer noted for her profound musicianship, meticulous work ethic and warm personality, Jennifer Johnson Cano is a 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant and George London Winner who joined The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera in 2008 and made her Met debut in 2009-2010. As First Prize winner of the 2009 Young Concert Artist International Auditions, she has given stunning recital debuts with her on- and off-stage partner Christopher Cano in New York at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, in Washington, D.C., at the Kennedy Center, in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center.
Over the last two seasons, Cano has bowed at The Metropolitan Opera as Mercedes, Emilia, Wellgunde and Waltraute and debuted as Meg Page in Falstaff and Bersi in Andrea Chenier. Other operatic debuts include Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust in collaboration with the Tucson Symphony, The Sharp Eared Fox in Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst and Diana in La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera. Summer Festival appearances take place in Bridgehampton and La Jolla with world premiere performances of a chamber music work by Howard Shore and a concert with Duo Assad. Further 2014-2015 season plans include Hansel, Nicklausse and Mercedes with The Metropolitan Opera, Donna Elvira with Boston Lyric Opera, Mahler II with the Utah Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, and a return to the Baltimore Symphony with Marin Alsop for Leonard Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony, which also will be recorded live for Naxos.
In addition to her continued relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, Cano has appeared with such esteemed orchestras as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, San Francisco Symphony and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She toured with Musicians from Marlboro singing Respighi's Il Tramonto and Cuckson's Der gayst funem shture, which was recorded live and released by the Marlboro Recording Society. A live recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde was also released featuring conductor George Manahan, tenor Paul Groves and St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. At the request of Carol Armstrong, Cano was particularly honored to have been invited to sing the Anderson/Weill September Song at the private funeral for American icon and astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Cano is a native of St. Louis, Missouri and earned her bachelor's degree in Music from Webster University and her master's degree from Rice University.
“Her voice seems to come out of a happy nexus of heart, soul and brain that lends an authoritative weight to every note.” - The New York Times
