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American soprano Heather Klein follows her passion of “painting pictures” with her voice – interpreting and inhabiting characters, and bringing stories to life.
Heather is a classically trained soprano in San Francisco, and performs Opera, Yiddish classical song, theater and folk music, as well as other styles. For the past decade, she has performed across the U.S., Canada and Europe, as a soloist and as part of various musical groups and opera companies. However, Klein has focused on a lesser known genre: Yiddish classical song.
Klein is having an exciting year having premiered the title role in Veretski Pass' "Lilith the Night Demon." In April, Heather completed a residency at The Contemporary Jewish Museum with her project: "Yiddish Spring" in honor of YomHaShoah performing Yiddish songs with Veretski Pass, and working with her own Trio to expose a beautiful Yiddish song cycle: Mameloshn.
In March, Klein portrayed Esther in the West Coast premiere of Itsik Manger's Di Megile. In addition, she played the role of Rosie in the world-premiere of "Ravensbruek Project," a cabaret opera based on the Holocaust, before a sold-out theater in Boston. This summer Klein will play Rosie again in Canada this summer and once more next May in Boston.
Highlights include singing with mentors Three Yiddish Divas, and touring with the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene alongside, among others, Zalmen Mlotek and Claire Barry of the Barry sisters, as well as working on new music.
Produced and researched, she has released two Yiddish musical albums, including, most recently, “Shifreles Portret: A Yiddish Art Song Project” with her “Inextinguishable Trio.” Some songs from the album are influenced by Klein’s recent residency in Budapest where she researched sheet music, collaborated in concert with Hungarian musicians and had her residency performance at the Balint Haz JCC on display for several weeks in a notable museum in Budapest.
This year she has been performing throughout the San Francisco Bay area, working on her upcoming projects, such as ShabesZingt , her yearly charitable program: Hungry for Yiddish, and as usual, is always looking to discover forgotten and unknown songs, with the hope of one day performing them.
Heather earned her Bachelor's and Master's from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She also works as a Cantorial Soloist and B'neiMitzvah tutor at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, Calif.