Carmen Balthrop has been acclaimed by The Washington Post as "electrifying . . . a consummate performer," by The New York Times as "a voice of power and uncommon tonal purity," and "a rapturously beautiful voice" by The Miami Herald.

This American soprano has an astonishing range of repertoire from Baroque opera to contemporary song literature. She has appeared with most of the major opera companies in North America including The Metropolitan, Canadian, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami, Seattle, Houston and Florentine. European opera houses include Venice (Teatro La Fenice) and Spoleto, Italy, as well as Berlin (Teatro des Westens). Her orchestral appearances include oratorio and concert performances with the New York Philharmonic, National, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pitts burgh, St. Louis Houston and Detroit symphonies.

In great demand as a recitalist, she has performed at the White House, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, as well as in Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, China, Mexico and the Bahamas. National Public Radio chose to air, on Christmas day, 2000, the live recording of her Christmas art song recital, performed at the national Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Ms. Balthrop's discography, found on the Deutsche Grammophon, Elan, New World, and Fonit Cetra labels, includes the title roles of Scott Joplin's Tremonisha and Claudio Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Her compact discs: The Art of Christmas and Nothing but Encores are scheduled to be released in the fall of 2003 and 2004 respectively. Most recently, Ms. Balthrop has performed the National Anthems of the United States and South Africa for the visit of President Nelson Mandela.

An Professor of Voice in the School of Music at the University of Maryland, she was inducted into the University of Maryland's Alumni Hall of Fame, the Omicron Delta Society and received the highest award from the University of Maryland's President's Commission on Women's Issues. Upcoming engagements include return visits to Taiwan and Shanghai for recitals sung in Chinese and her debut performance of the title role in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with Opera Columbus in 2005.