A "pure, lilting voice" (New York Times) that is "a wonder of unadorned beauty" (Boston Globe)

 

Dr. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano, was a member of the world renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4 from 2000-2016. She recorded twelve award-winning CD’s with the group, including American Angels which twice topped Billboard’s classical music charts, and The Cherry Tree, one of the top selling classical CDs of 2010. Anonymous 4′s performance of the Irish lament “Caoineadh” on Christopher Tin’s album Calling All Dawns, with Jacqueline as featured soloist, led to a Grammy for Best Classical Music Crossover Album. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ModernMedieval, an organization created to promote performance and education in early and new music. It includes ModernMedieval Voices, a female vocal ensemble which fosters collaborative projects featuring early music in conjunction with music from later periods and newly commissioned works.

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She has a reputation as a versatile and accomplished soloist, specializing in early and new music. She has collaborated with many composers including Judith Weir, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Orlando Gough, Richard Einhorn, Andrew Toovey, Andrew Lovett, Louis Conti, Daniel Thomas Davis, Gregory Spears, Phil Kline and David Lang, singing with such distinguished new music ensembles such as Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, Ensemble Intercontemporain Paris, Singcircle, Continuum, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ixion, Dogs of Desire, Ekmeles, S.E.M. Ensemble and the Locrian Chamber Ensemble.

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She has premiered roles in several operas, including Bacchant in The Bacchae (John Buller) for English National Opera London, Monk in Gawain (Sir Harrison Birtwistle) for The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Jeannie in The Juniper Tree (Andrew Toovey) for Broomhill International Opera, Jackie Kennedy in Jackie K (Andrew Lovett) for E.N.O. Contemporary Opera Studio, Eliza Doolittle/Scheherazade in The Loathly Lady (Paul Richards) at University of Pennsylvania, Bleiddwen in Wolf-in-Skins, an opera ballet by Gregory Spears and choreographer Christopher Williams for American Opera Projects, Overseer in Sweat by Juliet Palmer at National Sawdust for Centre for Contemporary Opera, Alcina in Jonathan Dawe’s Cracked Orlando for Juilliard’s Centre for Innovation in the Arts, and Gertrude Stein in Daniel Thomas Davis’s  Six.Twenty.Outrageous for AOP at Symphony Space.

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"Mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, whose character was called V but was costumed to clearly depict Stein, was the standout, singing with
poise and rich tone." (Christian Carey, Musical America)

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She also premiered the mezzo solos in Richard Einhorn’s oratorio The Origin, based on the life of Charles Darwin at SUNYOswego, and in Irish composer Philip Hammond’s Requiem for the Titanic, a performance that was broadcast live from St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, throughout the whole of Ireland. She has sung the role of Katherine in an opera in development, Tesla, by composer Phil Kline and film-maker Jim Jarmusch and performed excerpts from the piece at the Winnipeg New Music Festival and in New York with American Opera Projects. Other recent world premieres have included new songs by Alexander Goehr and German Cáceres with Juilliard New Music Ensemble as part of the Focus! Festival.

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She has appeared as a guest soloist with many early music ensembles both in Europe and the U.S., including The Washington Bach Consort DC, The Sixteen, The Bach Sinfonia, Carmel Bach Festival, St. Thomas Church NYC, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran NYC, Baltimore Consort, Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Armonia Nova, The Folger Consort, Parthenia, Sonnambula, Abendmusik, Hudson Chorale, and Fairfax Choral Society. Repertoire includes the mezzo/alto solos in Bach Magnificat, St Matthew and St John Passions, B Minor Mass and many cantatas, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Durufle and Faure Requiem, Paine Mass in D and songs from the Elizabethan era for Parthenia’s acclaimed program When Music and Sweet Poetry Agree. She is a frequent soloist with Distinguished Concerts International New York, performing Calling All Dawns at Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall.

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Jacqueline is also a voice teacher. She is a member of the Performance Faculty at Princeton University where she teaches voice and is director of Early Music Princeton Singers and co-director of the Consort Minor in Music program. She is also on the voice faculty at NYU. She gives seminars on vocal pedagogy to student composers including at Juilliard, MSM, and Montclair University. She has given residencies and masterclasses at Universities all over the US, including SUNYOswego, University of Athens Georgia, Mannes School of Music NYC and Georgetown University DC. She also has been a Visiting Artist at Duke University NC, The Catholic University of America D.C. and Binghamton University New York, collaborating with student composers to develop and perform new pieces for the voice. She also gives lectures on vocal heath, vocal pedagogy and Extended Vocal Techniques, and gives  both solo masterclasses and ensemble technique workshops with groups ranging from trios to choirs with 100+ members. She holds degrees from Queens University Belfast, Teacher’s College Columbia University and has a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School.