American mezzo-soprano Nicole Piccolomini makes her Teatro alla Scala debut as Grimgerde in Die Walküre in the 2010-11 season and sings subsequent performances of the role with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In coming seasons, she will return to both companies for the full Ring. She also returns to the Opéra National de Paris for Erste Norn and Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung this season and in coming seasons as Lola in Cavalleria rusticana and will sing her first Mrs. Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff at the Caramoor Festival. Last season, she made her debut at the Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as Maddalena in Rigoletto, sang performances of Verdi’s Requiem at the Umbria Music Festival, returned to the Deutsche Oper Berlin to reprise the same role in addition to joining the Opéra national de Paris as Flosshilde in Das Rheingold and Grimgerde in Die Walküre.

Ms. Piccolomini has previously joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin for numerous roles including Fenena in Nabucco, Erste Norn and Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung, Federica in Luisa Miller, Flosshilde in Das Rheingold, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Erste Magd in Elektra, Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Gräfin von Coigny in Andrea Chenier, and La Marquise de Langlade in Marie Victoire, and Rosalia in Tiefland. Other recent performances include the title role of Roussel’s Padmâvatî at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, Musetta in Leoncavallo’s La bohème with Opera de Oviedo, and the title role in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires with Gotham Chamber Opera. She has also sung further performances of Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Bayerische Staatsoper and Maddalena in Rigoletto with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Opera Delaware.

Equally active on the concert stage, she joined the New York City Ballet as the soloist in Leonid Desyatnikov’s Russian Seasons in Saratoga Springs, Bermuda Philharmonic for Handel’s Messiah, New Jersey Opera Theatre for a concert of opera favorites, and the Academy of Vocal Arts Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem.

She is a 2010 grant recipient from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation and has also previously received the Curt Engelhorn Scholarship from the American Berlin Opera Foundation. In addition to her studies at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia where her roles included Erda in Das Rheingold, she holds a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School and participated in the young artist programs of both the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the Caramoor Music Festival.