A native of Boston, soprano June Anderson ranks among the most important singers in the international opera and concert world today.
She is an artist with unique vocal qualities : tones that keep their textures in the high notes, a vocal range that is rich and makes the singing of high and agile musical movements appear effortless, a tone that is constantly clear, all this accompanied by a participation, involvement and understanding of the character represented
June Anderson started to take singing lessons at the age of 11. When she was , she became the youngest finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions.
She then attended Yale University as a French major, graduating cum laude.
It was after Yale that she really began to think seriously about becoming a singer : "I decided to go to New York and thought that if in two years' time I was not famous I would go to Law School. Well, at the end of about nine months I was not famous, I'd run out of all my money and it was at that point that I decided I would be a singer if it killed me. I suppose it must have been the challenge because nothing was easy any more. As a youngster and teenager, studying privately, everything had been easy and I was always being told I was wonderful. All of a sudden, nobody thought I was wonderful any more. So I thought, 'Damn it, I'll show them; I'll prove to them that I am!'"
She studied singing with Robert Leonard.
She made her professional debut with the New York City Opera in 1978 as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute.
In 1982, she was invited to sing Semiramide at the Rome Opera. Since then, June Anderson's career has taken her to virtually every major opera house in Europe and in the United States.
She has performed with the opera companies of Vienna, Paris, Hambourg, Madrid, Florence, Geneva, La Scala, Covent Garden, Venice, Rome, Bologna, Metropolitan Opera, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia. She has collaborated with such leading conductors as Leonard Bernstein, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Michael Tilson Thomas.
She was the first non-Italian ever to win the prestigious Bellini d'Oro prize.
It is June Anderson who sings the aria of the Queen of the Night in the film Amadeus by Milos Forman.
1978 Professional debut with the New York City Opera in THE MAGIC FLUTE 1982 European debut and first SEMIRAMIDE at the Rome Opera 1983 Debut in Florence and in Geneva in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR 1984 First Amina in LA SONNAMBULA in Venise 1985 Paris Opera debut in ROBERT LE DIABLE 1986 First Desdemona in Rossini's OTELLO in Venise La Scala of Milan debut in LA SONNAMBULA Covent Garden debut in SEMIRAMIDE and LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT at the Opéra-Comique of Paris 1987 I PURITANI at the Paris Comic-Opera 1987 First Giuletta in I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI at La Scala of Milan 1987 First BEATRICE DI TENDA in Venise 1988 Three Rossinian debuts : -First ARMIDA in Aix-en-Provence -First stage performance at the Pesaro Festival in OTELLO -First stage performance of Anna in MAOMETTO II in San Francisco 1989 Metropolitan Opera of New York debut in RIGOLETTO 1990 RICCIARDO E ZORAIDE in Pesaro New SEMIRAMIDE at the Metropolitan Opera 1992 First Elena of LA DONNA DEL LAGO at La Scala of Milan 1992 New LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR at the Metropolitan Opera 1993 First Maria in MAZEPPA in concert version at Carnegie Hall in New York 1993 New LA TRAVIATA in Chicago 1995 First Desdemona in Verdi's OTELLO in Los Angeles 1995 First Lucrezia in Verdi's I DUE FOSCARI at Covent Garden 1995 New LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT at the Metropolitan Opera 1995 First Rosalinde in DIE FLEDERMAUS at the Metropolitan Opera 1996 First Giovanna in Verdi's GIOVANNA D'ARCO in concert version in Barcelona and New York and in a fully staged production at Covent Garden 1996 First Tatiana in EUGENE ONEGIN in Tokyo 1997 First NORMA at Lyric Opera of Chicago 1997 First Elvira in ERNANI by Verdi at the OONY (Opera Orchestra of New York) 1998 First Leonora in IL TROVATORE by Verdi at the Metropolitan Opera 2000 First ANNA BOLENA in Pittsburgh 2002 First CAPRICCIO in Naples 2004 New SONNAMBULA at the Opera de Marseille 2005 First Agavé in the French creation of THE BASSARIDS by Hans Werner Henze at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris 2005 First DAPHNE by Richard Strauss at La Fenice in Venice 2005 First Madama Cortese from Rossini's IL VIAGGIO A REIMS, at the Opera of Monte-Carlo 2007 First MESSA DA REQUIEM by Verdi in Paris 2009 First LUCREZIA BORGIA at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège, Belgium