Dame Kiri Te Kanawa gained legendary status almost overnight after her sensational debut as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1971. From then, she moved rapidly into the front rank of international opera, and has become one of the most famous sopranos in the world.

A familiar figure in the major opera houses of four continents, Dame Kiri performs a large repertoire of lyric soprano heroines by Strauss, Verdi, Gounod, Mozart, Puccini, Tchaikovsky and Bizet. On the concert platform, she has appeared with the principal orchestras of Britain, Europe, Asia, and Australasia, and her ease with cameras and recording studios has brought her art to enormous audiences both within and without the classical musical genre.

In addition to complete operas, Dame Kiri’s recordings include aria collections from Bizet, French and Italian selections, song cycles by Berlioz, DuParc and Ravel, and the famous Songs of the Auvergne albums, which topped the best-seller charts in England.

Her operatic performances on video include Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus, Manon Lescaut, Otello, Arabella and Capriccio.

As a soloist at the wedding of HRH Prince Charles in St Paul’s Cathedral, she faced one of the largest direct telecast audience of any singer in history (estimated to be over 600 million people). 1990 saw another record when, during a tour of Australia and New Zealand, her outdoor concert in the city of Auckland attracted a crowd of 140,000. After 25 years at the forefront of musical life, in 1994 Dame Kiri celebrated her 50th birthday, culminating in a spectacular Birthday Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Dame Kiri holds honorary doctorates from ten universities and is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music. Kiri was awarded the title of Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1982 and in 1990, she received the Order of Australia and in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours List, the prestigious Order of New Zealand.

WARREN JONES frequently performs with many of today's best-known artists, including Barbara Bonney, Ruth Ann Swenson, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Denyce Graves, Stephanie Blythe, Håkan Hagegård, Bo Skovhus, Samuel Ramey, James Morris, John Relyea, and Joseph Alessi. In the past he has partnered such great singers as Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle, Carol Vaness, Judith Blegen, Tatiana Troyanos and Martti Talvela. His collaborations have earned consistently high praise from many publications: The Boston Globe termed him "flawless" and "utterly ravishing"; The New York Times, "exquisite"; and The San Francisco Chronicle said simply, "He is the single finest accompanist now working."

Mr. Jones has been featured in an interview with Eugenia Zuckerman on "CBS Sunday Morning" in which his work as a performer and teacher was explored, and he has appeared on television across the United States with Luciano Pavarotti. He has often been a guest artist at Carnegie Hall and in Lincoln Center's "Great Performers Series," as well as the festivals of Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Caramoor. His international travels have taken him to recitals at the Salzburg Festival, Milan's Teatro alla Scala, the Maggio Musicale Festival in Florence, the Teatro Fenice in Venice, Paris' Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra Bastille, Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Cultural Centre in Hong Kong and theatres throughout Scandinavia and Korea.

Mr. Jones has been invited three times to the White House by American presidents to perform at concerts honoring the President of Russia, and Prime Ministers of Italy and Canada — and three times he has appeared at the U.S. Supreme Court as a specially invited performer for the Justices and their guests. As a guest at the Library of Congress, Mr. Jones has appeared with the Juilliard Quartet in performances of the Schumann Piano Quintet. He was featured in the United Nations memorial concert and tribute to Miss Audrey Hepburn, an event which was telecast worldwide following Miss Hepburn's death.