Biography

"Abundant power, effective technique and steady intonation"
-The Denver Post

Soprano Abigail Chapman refers to herself as a “bookends musician”—while she sings music from all centuries and in a variety of styles, she is most highly regarded for her work in early music and for her performances of 20th and 21st century classical music.  Known for her versatility, pure tone, and clear high notes, she performs music ranging from the Medieval period to compositions written today.  She has participated in early opera, oratorio, and chamber music from Maine to Virginia, as well as in Colorado and Montana; she has given historically-informed performances at the Smithsonian Institute, New York’s Gotham Early Music Scene, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and the Boston Early Music Festival.  An enthusiastic advocate of new music, Abbi loves working directly with composers, and has participated in the premieres of numerous new works.  A proud native of Maine, she has also lived and sung professionally in and around New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore/Washington D.C., and Denver; she has been heard in a dozen states, as well as in England, Germany, Japan, and New Zealand.    

Highlights of the 2021-2022 season included performing Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque music with Riverview Early Music, which she co-founded; recording the music of Daniel Spalding with the Philadelphia Virtuosi; appearing as a soloist in the U.S. premiere of two recently-discovered operas by 17th-century Italian composer Giacomo Carissimi with Choral Arts Philadelphia; recording and performing with the Grammy-winning choir The Crossing; participating in several concerts with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, with whom she is a professional section leader, including the premiere of a new oratorio by Andrea Clearfield; appearing as a soloist with La Fiocco Baroque Ensemble; singing with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, as well as in a concert version of Kevin Puts’s opera The Hours; a concert with the Mastersingers of Wilmington, with whom she is a regular guest; and touring England with the choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.

Since moving to Pennsylvania in late 2016, Ms. Chapman has sung with The Crossing in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Montana. In January 2019, she joined The Crossing in the world premiere of a new oratorio, Fire in My Mouth, by Bang-On-A-Can composer Julia Wolfe with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center under the baton of Jaap van Zweden, the recording of which was nominated for two Grammy awards. She performed with the chorus of Opera Philadelphia in their production of Handel’s Semele (2019), and in Verdi’s Requiem (2020). She appeared as a soloist with Musikanten Montana Early Music Festival in their multi-city “Viva Vivaldi!” tour in 2020, and performed with the Practitioners of Musick at Philadelphia's Museum of the American Revolution in 2019. She has performed and recorded new music with the vocal sextet Variant 6; covered the role of soprano soloist in Tan Dun’s formidable Water Passion after St. Matthew with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia; and given recitals entirely of music by living composers, including several premieres, with viola and piano. She has performed as a member of Les Agréments de Musique, an ensemble specializing in music of the French Baroque, at Princeton University and Westminster Choir College; been featured in a one-on-a-part concert of Handel’s Messiah with House Music Philadelphia; performed Couperin’s sumptuous Trois Leçons de Ténèbres for two sopranos and continuo; been a guest artist with Brandywine Baroque and with the Bacheler Consort; performed the program “Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Music" with recorder, harpsichord, and organ; and given recitals of French, English, Italian, German, and Spanish lute song in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey. She is a staff singer at Saint Mark’s Church in Philadelphia, where she has been a soloist in such works as the Requiems of Fauré and Desenclos, Mozart’s Missa Brevis in C Major, KV 259, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël, Britten’s Te Deum, and the premiere of Transfiguration by Bryan Dunnewald.

She has been heard from the WRTI Performance Studio with The Crossing, and on Colorado Public Radio with the Denver Early Music Consort. She sings on the premiere recording of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth with The Crossing and the New York Philharmonic (Decca Gold 2019); on the premiere recording of Michael Gordon’s multi-movement choral piece Anonymous Man with The Crossing (Cantaloupe Music 2020); on the premiere recording of David Hertzberg’s new opera The Wake World with Opera Philadelphia (Tzadik Records 2020); on The Crossing’s 2021 release Rising w/ The Crossing (New Focus Recordings); on the 2022 release of Dominick DiOrio’s Fetter and Air with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia (Navona Records); on a recording of two masses by Henri Hardouin with St. Martin’s Chamber Choir (Toccata Classics 2013); on a podcast by Craft Works Music entitled, “Madrigals and Madriguys: A Taste of Renaissance Flirtation”; and on a compilation of music from artists around the world called Demos for a Difference, a benefit for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund released on July 3, 2020, in “January: Brin’s Mesa” by composer Rebekah Driscoll with violinist Allison Dubinski.

The 2022-2023 season will bring concerts of one-on-a-part madrigals of 17th-century German composer Heinrich Schütz at The College of New Jersey, the German Society of Pennsylvania, and St. Paul’s Chestnut Hill; recording and concertizing with The Practitioners of Musick, including a repeat appearance at the Museum of the American Revolution; a second appearance as soloist with La Fiocco; Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with Opera Philadelphia; more work with The Crossing, with the Mastersingers of Wilmington, and with the symphonic choir of the Philadelphia Orchestra; and concerts with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, including a tour to Italy in June 2023.

Ms. Chapman holds an MM in Voice from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where she was awarded the George Woodhead Prize in Voice and a Peabody Career Grant.  She earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was a winner of the Sarah Lawrence Concerto Competition and was awarded the Jerome Swinford Scholarship.  Her major teachers have included William Sharp, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Wayne Sanders, and Eddye Pierce-Young, and she has sung in master classes with Denyce Graves, Dawn Upshaw, Andreas Scholl, Julianne Baird, Drew Minter, Pamela Dellal, and others.

She lives with her husband, jazz drummer Peter Gregory, along with their three cats, in Yardley, Pennsylvania; she enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking, biking, and other outdoor activities.