New Artist of the Month: Soprano Hannah De Priest

Lyric soprano Hannah De Priest has found her comfort zone. A rising star on the early music scene and a regular guest of the Cleveland-based baroque ensemble Les Délices, she impresses with sheer beauty of sound, plus a host of more subtle interpretive delights: poignant phrasing, precise articulation, and the clear diction of a native speaker. A recent program with Délices, Arcadian Dreams, soon to be released on AVIE, combined lesser-known virtuoso works by Handel and Rameau with obscure gems by Louis-Antoine Lefebvre and Thomas-Louis Bourgeois.

When she performs with some of the nation’s leading period ensembles—at the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF), with the Newberry Consort, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, and Haymarket Opera Company—the power of her voice easily emerges, as does her expertise in the context.

BEMF Orchestra Director/violinist Robert Mealy remembers her as “fearless” when she stepped in last-minute for the title role of Francesco Desmarest’s Circé in 2023, and a “total tour-de-force” last November in Henri Provenzale’s La Stellidaura vendicante. “She is an ideal colleague…with a glorious voice that she uses with deep musical intelligence,” Mealy said.

De Priest studied historical performance practice along with vocal technique. “For truly understanding the music of the past, there’s no substitute for reading and writing,” she said in a Zoom interview from her home in Philadelphia.  

Her grounding in theater and sports also seems to be paying dividends. Regular appearances in high school musicals and on the ice as a figure skater developed both her work ethic and her acting abilities. How fitting that she once joined a college production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia.

“The athlete’s mindset paired with an artist’s sensibility, those two things have served me really well,” De Priest said, describing herself as a singer-actor. “I’ve been able to feel things really deeply and convey that on stage. I really love that as a guiding ethos in my life. Theatricality has been a North Star.”

Early days

It was at Case Western Reserve University that De Priest caught the eye (or rather ear) of oboist Debra Nagy, founder and artistic director of Les Délices, then leader of the school’s collegium. DePriest became Nagy’s assistant and mentee before heading to McGill University and the American Bach Academy for further study. Eventually, De Priest said, her voice “opened up” as she saw that Baroque music—and French Baroque music in particular—is her sweet spot.

She is now a regular guest with Les Délices, a tight-knit group that tours nationally. Nagy, meanwhile, has taken “délice” in watching her former protégée thrive. “Now we’re all seeing that hard work, raw talent, and heartfelt collegiality bear tremendous fruit,” she said.

High expectations abound: “I can’t wait to see where her musical path takes her next,” said BEMF’s Robert Mealy.

It’s a busy one, wherever it may lead. In April she performs the Arcadian Dreams program with Les Délices in Los Angeles and headlines an all-Handel program in Cleveland titled “Starstruck.” Later, she joins new productions of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Ars Lyrica Houston and the Newberry Consort in Chicago. A Boston invitation awaits.

De Priest still thinks of herself as a rising artist; at the same time, she’s trying to be more selective. When the next lead role falls into her lap, possibly at the last moment, she wants to have the freedom to accept. “You have to make space for the bigger things to come to you,” De Priest said. “I’m still very ambitious, but I’m not chasing every single thing.”

As to the release of Arcadian Dreams, her first commercial recording, it’s the culmination of her life’s work to date; for once, the fearless soprano is a bit nervous. 

“It’s kind of scary,” she admits. “But I’m also really excited. I do feel like the wind is at my back, after so many years of pushing. It feels really good.”

_{Photo by Erica MacLean}