Dawn Upshaw: The Diva Next Door

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Upshaw grew up in a suburb of Chicago. "Mom, who was a schoolteacher, played the piano," she says, "and Dad, who was a minister, played the guitar. I started singing with them and my older sister when I was five -- songs by Peter, Paul and Mary and other folk stuff." Their group was called the Upshaw Family Singers. Her youthful idols were Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin, and she dreamed of a career in musical theater. At Illinois Wesleyan University, though, she studied voice with her future father-in-law, David Nott, and he introduced her to classical song, starting with Schubert and Debussy. "His emphasis was on the words," she says. "I don't think my voice is all that beautiful. If I have any strength, it's connecting the text and the music." That is far too modest: Upshaw's light but penetrating soprano has a purity that is instantly recognizable.

She has never been busier. This fall she sings Mozart at the Met (The Marriage of Figaro, Idomeneo) while preparing a January recital for Lincoln Center at which James Levine will accompany her. She has recently released two classical albums: songs by Aaron Copland (with baritone Thomas Hampson), and lieder by Schumann, Schubert, Wolf and Mozart, with texts by Goethe, accompanied by pianist Richard Goode. Due out in October is a record that shows yet another departure: music from Eastern Europe with the Kronos Quartet.

If Upshaw is driven, she doesn't show it. She lives with her husband Michael, a musicologist, and their two children (she gave birth to a boy this summer) in a comfortable house near New York City. Sitting in her living room she might be any suburban woman discussing what it's like to keep everything in balance. "I know I should be giving more thought to shaping my career," she says. "But every morning still feels like a fresh start. My four-year-old daughter Sadie has the same spirit. The first thing she says when she gets up is 'O.K., now can we talk about the day?' "