Soprano Susan Foster has frequently been hailed by critics for her thrilling, emotionally compelling performances in many of opera's greatest soprano roles. Her 2007/08 season included three new role debuts, first as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde with LA Opera with James Conlon in the pit, a role she reprised later in the season for the Stars of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia with Valéry Gergiev conducting; then Leonore in Fidelio with Opera Roanoke; and finally the title role in Turandot in a production directed by Renata Scotto with the Greek National Opera. The 2008/09 season takes her her to the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut as a mid-performance replacement as Isolde, and to LA Opera for Helmwige and to cover Brünnhilde in Die Walküre. Upcoming engagements for 2009/10 include a return once again to sing Helmwige and cover Brünnhilde for LA's Ring cycle, as well as concert versions of Verdi's Requiem and Sieglinde in Die Walküre (Act I) with Maestro Gergiev in Baden Baden.

Among the many roles Ms. Foster has performed over the course of her career are the title characters in both Tosca and Norma, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Elisabetta in Don Carlo and Mozart's heroines Fiordiligi in Cosí fan Tutte, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Other roles currently in her repertoire include Barber's Vanessa and Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer. She has performed with such companies as Los Angeles Opera (where she made her Company debut in 2005 as Marianne in Der Rosenkavalier), New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Florida Grand Opera, Vancouver Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Chautauqua Opera.

Concert highlights include appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Youngstown Symphony Orchestra and West Virginia Symphony (in Verdi's Requiem).

Born in Arizona and raised in Ohio, Ms. Foster received a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from The Ohio State University and then continued her professional training as a member of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists with Lyric Opera of Chicago. She has been honored with numerous awards, including the Florida Grand Opera Olsen Artist Award, the Washington Summer Opera Guild Award, Grand Prize of the Greater Miami Opera YPO Competition and a Shoshana Foundation Grant. Her discography includes the Prompter in Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search of an Author.