With a voice of “extraordinary suppleness and beauty” (The New York Times), GRAMMY-nominated soprano Teresa Wakim is “a marvel of perfect intonation and pure tone” (New York Arts), and perhaps known best for her “perfect early music voice” (Cleveland Classical). First Place Winner of the International Competition for Early Music in Brunnenthal, Austria, she was also honored as a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music Boston. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, she maintains a busy career as a concert soloist spanning the medieval to new music, and on the baroque opera stage.

 

She played the role of La Musique in Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles with the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) nominated for a GRAMMY in the 2020 awards. Also with BEMF she sang the role of Flore in their 2015 GRAMMY-Award Winning album of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphee aux Enfers album. Other solo recordings include BEMF’s Acis & Galatea in a title role, Handel’s Almira, Charpentier’s Acteon, Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and Coronation Mass with the Handel and Haydn Society, and the GRAMMY-Nominated recording of Brahms’ German Requiem with Miami’s premiere choral ensemble Seraphic Fire. Acclaimed concert performances include Bach’s wedding cantata Weichet nur and Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer with the Cleveland Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Houston, San Antonio, Charlotte, Alabama, and Tucson Symphonies, Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Brahms’ German Requiem with the Omaha Symphony, and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Boston Landmarks Orchestra.

 

Passionate about period performance and scholarship, she has performed concerts and toured with many of the world’s best period instrument ensembles, including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, BEMF, Wiener Akademie, Apollo’s Fire: The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Mercury Baroque, Dallas Bach Society, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Pacific MusicWorks, Tragicomedia, The Dryden Ensemble, Bourbon Baroque, Three Notch’d Road, the Musicians of the Old Post Road, Les Bostonades, New York Baroque Inc, and Blue Heron.

 

When not performing, Tess can be found caring for her young daughter, and discussing all things blue whales, gene therapy, and space exploration with her scientist husband in Boston, MA.