Photo by Scott Hewitt

Laura Heimes

Praised for her “sumptuous tone and shimmering clarity” and hailed for "a voice equally velvety up and down the registers", soprano Laura Heimes is widely regarded as an artist of great versatility, with repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century.   She has collaborated with many of the leading figures in early music, including Andrew Lawrence King, Julianne Baird, Tempeste di Mare, The King’s Noyse, Paul O’Dette, Chatham Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, The New York Collegium, The Publick Musick, Brandywine Baroque, Trinity Consort, and Piffaro – The Renaissance Band, a group with whom she has toured the United States.  Additionally, Ms. Heimes is a member of Fuma Sacra, the early music vocal ensemble-in-residence at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.  She has been heard at the Boston, Connecticut and Indianapolis Early Music Festivals, at the Oregon and Philadelphia Bach Festivals under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, and in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil in concerts of Bach and Handel.   With the Philadelphia Orchestra she appeared as Mrs. Nordstrom in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.  December 2003 marked her Carnegie Hall debut in Handel's Messiah with the Masterwork Chorus. 

Highlights of the 2006-07 season will include the roles of Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Bach Sinfonia (Washington, DC), Susanna in Stradella’s La Susanna with Magnificat (San Francisco, CA), and Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Wilmington, DE).  She will appear on the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque series with Piffaro, the SFEMS series with Voces Musicales in a holiday program of English and Spanish Renaissance music, at the University of Maryland with Reconstruction, an all female ensemble devoted to new and fresh interpretations of baroque chamber music and beyond, and at Princeton University in an all Handel program.  Other concert appearances will include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Princeton, NJ  and Portland, OR), Haydn’s Creation (Philadelphia, PA), Rameau’s In Convertendo (Portland, OR), Bach’s Coffee Cantata (Ithaca, NY and Wilmington, DE), Cantata 171 (Bethlehem, PA), as well as an evening of Purcell with Repast (New York, NY) and a program of 17th Italian music with Pegasus (Rochester, NY).  An advocate of contemporary music, she will perform a concert at Temple University with Cybersounds in an electroacoustic program to include Philadelphia and World Premieres by Maurice Wright and Angela Veomett.   She will also participate in a reading of scenes from Thomas Whitman’s new opera “A Scandal in Bohemia” based on Sherlock Holmes at Swarthmore College.

Repeat engagements with Brandywine Baroque, Philomel, Pegasus, Le Triomphe de l'Amour and Piffaro will include programs of English and French motets, as well as cantatas by Handel, Rameau, Clérambault, Schütz, Strozzi and Monteverdi.

Ms. Heimes’ most recent recordings include the songs of Purcell with Brandywine Baroque; The Lass with the Delicate Air: English Songs from the London Pleasure Gardens; Handel Duets and Trios (not yet released); The Jane Austen Songbook with Julianne Baird; and Caldara's Il Giuoco del Quadriglio with Julianne Baird and the Queen's Chamber Band conducted by Stephen Altop.

A native of Rochester NY, she holds Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and Voice Performance from Temple University.  Ms. Heimes has recorded for Dorian, Pro Gloria Musicae, Plectra Music, Sonabilis, and Albany records. Additionally, she has worked with students in the form of clinics and master classes and coachings at Dickenson College, Wesley College, Swarthmore College and Temple University.  She currently teaches voice at Westminster Choir College.