Kim Criswell has sung with many of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, with whom she performed and later recorded Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town at the BBC  Proms Concerts, the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, London Sinfonietta, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre de Picardie, the Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra della Toscana, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Toronto and Winnipeg Symphonies and the radio orchestras of the BBC, RTE, MDR, WDR, Berlin and Munich.

Kim Criswell has performed roles on stage at Opera North, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Teatro La Fenice, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra de Rouen, Grange Park Opera, Opera Pacific, Michigan Opera, Atlanta Opera, among others.

Kim Criswell has also performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Opéra Comique in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, the Musikverein, Konzerthaus and Volksoper in Vienna, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and the Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh.  Her London appearances include multiple performances at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Cadogan Hall, and the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House.  International engagements have taken her from Reykjavik, Helsinki, Leipzig and Kaiserslautern, to Athens, Essen, Gothenburg and Bremen, to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Hong Kong, Malta, Montpellier, Moscow, giving her unique exposure among interpreters of the musical theatre genre.

Kim Criswell performs in concert regularly with John Wilson and Wayne Marshall.  With John Wilson she has presented the world of film in concert across the UK, including the very popular MGM and Rodgers and Hammerstein Proms concert, and several solo evenings.  Her ongoing recital partnership with conductor/pianist Wayne Marshall has taken the pair to many of the great concert venues in Europe, both as recitalists and in full symphony settings.

Kim Criswell formed other lasting musical partnerships over the years, leading to both concerts and recordings.  Conductor/music historian John McGlinn introduced her to EMI Classics, which resulted in several recordings and a personal recording contract, as well as many symphony concerts across the USA and Europe.  Other conductors she has appeared with include Kristjan Jarvi, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Yutaka Sado, Keith Lockhart, Ulf Schirmer, John Axelrod, Kevin Farrell, Carl Davis and Richard Hickox, among others.

Some of the more exotic locations where she has performed include Buckingham Palace, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Ravello’s cliffside concert platform, Stockholm’s Globen Arena and the floating stage at Bregenz Festival

Critically acclaimed as Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun at London’s Price of Wales Theatre, (for which she earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical), and for her portrayal of The Old Lady in Robert Carsen’s productions of Candide at La Scala and at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Kim Criswell also won a Helen Hayes Award for her work in Side by Side by Sondheim.  More recently she was seen in the US starring as Sally Adams in Call Me Madam at the Goodspeed Opera House, singing The Old Lady at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, and co-starring with Joseph Fiennes and Charles Edwards in Happy Days in the Art World at NYU’s Skirball Center in New York.  Staged performances in Europe include the lead role of Susie Trevor in Lady Be Good at Teatro La Fenice and the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos.

Kim Criswell’s Broadway credits include starring as Lucy, opposite Sting, in the 3Penny Opera, directed by John Dexter, and appearing in the original Broadway cast of the 1982 Best Musical Tony winner Nine, first as Francesca, then taking of the leading role of Claudia.  Other Broadway original cast credits include The First, Baby and Stardust.  On the West Coast she played the original Grizabella in Cats, singing ‘Memory’ at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles, and appeared as Lalume in Kismet for Opera Pacific.  She starred in the original West End productions of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens and The Slow Drag, as well as a revival of Dames At Sea, and as the Mother Abbess in the acclaimed production of The Sound of Music at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

More recently she played the Italian Opera singer Mrs Castellari in the feature film Hysteria opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy and Jonathan Pryce.  In 2018 she celebrated the Bernstein Centennial in concerts in Adelaide, Sydney, Aldeburgh Festival, Riga, Moscow, Basel and Oslo and was a featured soloist in 2018 for Last Night of the Proms from Belfast.

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