California native Buffy Baggott is quickly gaining recognition around the United States as an accomplished and highly versatile lyric mezzo soprano. She began her music education by winning music scholarships to UCLA and San Francisco State University for vocal performance. She then went on to complete two apprenticeships with the Santa Fe Opera and is an alumnus of the prestigious Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, now known as the Ryan Opera Center. Opera Center performances include: Angelina in La Cenerentola, Soloist in WTTW’s Opera Philes concert at Ravinia and Carmen at the Grant Park Music Festival for which she received rave reviews. Early performances at the Lyric Opera Chicago include most notably: Stephano in Roméo et Juliette, Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos, and title role in the matinees of Carmen, a Flower Maiden in Parsifal, Second Lady in Magic Flute , Siegrune in Die Walküre and Mrs. Hayes in Susannah.

Hailed as “a phenomenon of vocal and dramatic intensity” by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006, Ms. Baggott is making her mark in twentieth-century music. The mezzo created the role of Hennakh in the world premiere of Shulamit Ran’s opera Between Two Worlds (The Dybbuk) with the Lyric Opera Center. With the Santa Fe Opera she appeared in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, seen on PBS in April of 1997, and previewed the role of Triraksha in their workshop of Ashoka’s Dream. She was a primary soloist for the San Francisco Stockhausen Festival, Concertante di Chicago (in Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles), Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Berlin touring production of Moses und Aron, was named “best actress in a musical” for her work as Mrs Lovett in Spokane Opera’s production of Sweeney Todd, played Noye’s wife in Noyes Fludde and created the role of the moustachioed Baroness von Botzenheim in The Good Soldier Schweik, both for Chicago Opera Theater. Recently, she garnered glowing reviews for her performance in Chrysalis, a modern opera commissioned by Berkeley Opera. In 2008 she will perform and record various works by Chicago composer Stacy Garrop for the Cedille label, and can be heard on their recording of The Good Soldier Schweik.

The role of Carmen is Ms. Baggott’s signature role. She has performed it with LOCAA, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Arizona Opera, Pamiro Opera, France’s Festival Lyrique de Belle Ile en Mer and with Festival Opera, Spokane and Manitoba Opera companies. Reviewers have compared her performances of this character to an “animal stalking it’s kill”, “a vamp”, “a lithe siren” and “Cleopatra spiced with nearly every role Dietrich ever played…”. Not one to be typecast, she has also sang the comedic roles of: Tisbe (the ugly stepsister) in Cenerentola at the Hong Kong Arts Festival with the Los Angelos Opera, Beatrice in Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict for Berkeley Opera, Helen in The Beautiful Helen of Troy for Light Opera Works, Diana Devereaux in Of Thee I Sing for the Chicago Humanities Festival and Charlotte in Festival Opera’s production of Werther for which the company won “Best Operatic Production by a small company” from the San Francisco press.

Between 2000-2005 Ms. Baggott made her debut with Tulsa Opera singing Maddalena in Rigoletto, Carmen with Manitoba Opera and Spokane Opera, made returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing in Susannah, Die Walkure Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Antonia in the premiere of A Wedding. She also made her debuts with Portland Opera as Nicklausse in Tales of Hoffman, Maddalena in Rigoletto with Opera Grand Rapids and Orlovsky in Michigan Opera Theatre's Die Fledermaus. . In addition she performed a highly acclaimed Mrs. Lovett in Arizona Opera's production of Sweeney Todd, a return to Canadian Opera Company for Maddalena in Rigoletto and Siegrune in Die Walkure. Concerts include Mozart's Coronation Mass with the Illinois Symphony, and Anita in West Side Story with Grant Park Music Festival. Her 2005-2006 performances include Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus with Sacramento Opera, the world premiere of Chrysalis with Berkley Opera, and a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Carmen and Die Zauberfloete and brought in the New Years with a Gala at Opera Naples. The summer of 2006 found her performing Schwertleite, and convered Flosshilde and First Norn in Canadian Opera’s Wagner’s Ring Cycle. In 2006-7 she returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Inez in Il Trovatore, performed Sonyetka in Shostakovich’s Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk and Flora in La Traviata with the Canadian Opera Company. 2008/09 performances include Flosshilde in Das Rheingold with the San Francisco Opera (debut), The Dresser/Schoolboy/Groom in Lulu with LOC, Mother/Witch in Hansel and Gretel with the DuPage Symphony, Narrator in Rumplestiltskin for the Chicago Cultural Center, Siegrune in Die Walküre with the Los Angeles Opera, Flosshilde in Das Rheingold with the Indianapolis Opera, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro ) and Siegrune (Die Walküre), both with Hawaii Opera Theater, and Siegrune in Los Angeles Opera’s Ring Cycle.

Upcoming performances include Desiree in A Little Night Music at St. Petersburg Opera Company and Carmen in The Carmen Fixation (A new reworking of Bizet's Carmen by Johnathon Khuner and Mark Streshinsky)for Berkeley Opera. She can be heard on the Santa Fe Opera recording of Emmeline and Cedille Record’s recordings of The Good Soldier Schweik and The Billy Collin’s Suite. Ms. Baggott also continues to serve on voice faculty at the Bay View Music Festival.