Internationally renowned soprano June Anderson was born in Boston,and first came to public attention at the age of seventeen, the youngest finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions. But she preferred to continue her education, and was graduated cum laude from Yale College with a degree in French Literature.
In her long career she performed in all the major opera houses in Europe and North and South America and collaborated with many of the greatest conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa and Michael Tilson Thomas. Recitals and concerts have also taken her to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Prague, Athen, Sao Paulo, Reyjkavik, Seville, Festival of Baalbek, and Jerusalem.
She left the U.S.A. for Europe in 1982 where she began to specialize in the bel canto repertory and made her debuts in the most important European opera houses including La Fenice, Venice; La Scala, Milan; Covent Garden, London , Opéra de Paris, and the Teatru Liceu, Barcelona. Roles included Rossini's SEMIRAMIDE in Rome and London; LUCIA di LAMMERMOORin Florence, Geneva and Vienna and London; Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA in Venice, Milan and Paris. She also began to sing Rossini rarities including OTELLO, MAOMETTO II, RICCIARDO E ZORAIDE, and LA DONNA DEL LAGO. In 1997 she debuted Bellini's NORMA at Chicago Lyric Opera, the role which , added to LUCIA and LA TRAVIATA were the most performed roles in her career.
Her Metropolitan Opera debut was as Gilda in Rigoletto, with Luciano Pavarotti in 1989. In subsequent seasons she was heard in the title roles in Donizetti's La fille du Régiment, Lucia di Lammermoor, Semiramide and La Traviata, as well as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Leonora in Il Trovatore and several televised concerts.
In the last few years she has become interested in sharing her knowledge and experience with younger singers and has given Master Classes at La Chapelle Reine Elisabeth in Brussels;, the Ateneo della Lirica in Sulmona, Italy; Concorso Colzani, Budrio, Italy; Festival de Saint Lizier, France; Bel Canto Festival of the Montreal Symphony and Opera Viva in Verona, Italy.
Her large discography includes concert works of Beethoven, Pergolesi, and Orff as well as operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Bizet, Mozart, Massenet, and Verdi. She has received a Grammy Award for Leonard Bernstein's Candide; and been named "Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Government.
