Praised by Opera News as “the kind of performer who makes it all look easy,” Heather Buck is best described by opera critic David Shengold as “a lithe and impactful actress with an uncommonly beautiful soprano for the high-lying and testing repertory she serves." Her operatic repertoire ranges widely, from creating such roles as Haroun in Wuorinen's Haroun and the Sea of Stories at NYCO, Alma Beers in Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain at Madrid’s Teatro Real, and Ku in Prestini’s Gilgamesh; to singing US stage premieres of Lachenmann’s Little Matchgirl, Rihm’s Proserpina (title role), and Dusapin’s Faustus, the Last Night (Angel); to enjoying standard repertoire such as Beatrice et Bénédict (Héro, Opera Boston), Der Freischütz (Ännchen, Opera Boston), L’Elisir d’Amore (Anina), Pearl Fishers (Leïla), Ariadne auf Naxos (Zerbinetta), Magic Flute (Queen of the Night), Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), La Bohème (Musetta), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tytania).
Other operatic highlights include Glass’ Orphee (Princesse), Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire (Stella), Dusapin’s Medeamaterial (Medea), Floyd’s Wuthering Heights (Isabella Linton), Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry (Lulu Baines), Argento’s The Boor (The Widow), and Merteuil in Francesconi's Quartett. She reprised the title role in Haroun and the Sea of Stories with BMOP, and appeared with Odyssey Opera in the title role of Argento’s Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night and as Joan of Arc in Dello Joio's The Trial at Rouen. She first worked with Gil Rose through BMOP in Adès’ Powder Her Face (The Maid), a role she has also performed in London, Metz, Bilbao, Brooklyn, Aspen, and filmed for television.
In concert, Heather appeared at the Kennedy Center and Trinity Wall Street in Glass’ Symphony No. 5, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts in Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, St. Petersburg’s Marinsky Theater in Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St. Matthew, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in Dusapin’s Faustus, the Last Night, Boston’s Symphony Hall in Handel’s Messiah, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre with the NAC Orchestra in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, and Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra. Other appearances include Bernstein's Songfest (Trinity Church Time's Arrow Festival), Salonen’s Five Images After Sappho (Utah Symphony Orchestra), Druckman’s Counterpoise (Los Angeles Symphony New Music Group), Orff’s Carmina Burana (San Antonio Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas), Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children (Spoleto Festival), Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 (Westchester Philharmonic), Saariaho’s Leino Laulut (US premiere, Orchestra of the League of Composers), and Karchin’s Four Songs on Poems of Seamus Heaney (world premiere, Orchestra of the League of Composers, and Bowling Green New Music Festival).
Discography includes three recordings with BMOP and Odyssey Opera: Dello Joio’s GRAMMY Award-nominated The Trial at Rouen, Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and Argento’s Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night and The Boor. Additional recordings include Aldridge’s GRAMMY Award-winning Elmer Gantry and Floyd’s Wuthering Heights with Florentine Opera; Glass’ Symphony No. 5 with Trinity Wall Street; and Karchin’s Four Songs on Poems by Seamus Heaney with Bowling Green Philharmonic.