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Biography
Austin-based artist Bonnie Montgomery is a creative nomad, lauded as enthusiastically for her polished parlor songs as she is for her lawless country barnburners — or for the classical opera arias she's penned at the piano.
With roots in White County, Arkansas and a firm foothold on forward-thinking audiences in Texas, Montgomery is armed with a poet's phrasing, a soprano's crystalline timbre and a revolutionary's spirit, and her repertoire ranges wherever it damn well pleases — from high romantic ballads swaddled in violins to fiery anthems of dissent to spaghetti western-inspired vignettes.
Dale Watson called her “a sophisticated badass who was born to sing.” Counterpunch Magazine hailed her operatic compositions as “white trash arias, soaked in alcohol and sex.” Her 2016 short-length opera about Bill Clinton's youth in Hot Springs has earned accolades from The New Yorker and Huffington Post, and her second full-length album “Forever” drew praise from Paste magazine for its “timeless songwriting.”
Montgomery secured the title of 2020 Entertainer of the Year with the Arkansas Country Music Awards, ACMA 2019 Americana/Roots Artist of the Year, the title of Outlaw Female at the 2016 Ameripolitan Awards and the titles of Best Americana Artist and Best Female Vocalist at the 2018 Arkansas Country Music Awards.
?This year, Montgomery returns to her classical composition roots with her new song, "Song Beyond Words, a Vocalise," featured on the virtual album CALL OUT, a celebration of female composers originally scheduled for Carnegie Hall by celebrated Broadway and Metropolitan Opera star Zachary James. The composition is the first to use steel guitar in an operatic medium.
And, with two new singles produced by rockabilly legend Rosie Flores and a touring collaboration with Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard in her rearview mirror, Montgomery's leaving little doubt that she's a master in the making — a charismatic collaborator, a commanding bandleader and a prolific, sensitive conduit for big ideas about beauty, defiance and power.
Productions
Click company name to view productions details.
| COMPANY | TITLE | DATES | Opera Ithaca | Billy Blythe | 4/8/2016 - 4/8/2016 |
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Artist Information
All information is derived from OPERA America's Season Schedule of Performances and titles databases which date back to 1991. OPERA America is constantly updating this data. If you feel that a work or an artist has been omitted or that information is incorrect, please use the linked forms below. Title Information Form Artist Information Form
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