Amanda Crider, praised for her “focused golden-toned voice” is a native of Coopersburg, Pennsylvania.  Most recently, Ms. Crider was heard in Gotham Chamber Opera’s production of Scenes of Gypsy Life in New York City.  In the fall of 2007, she joined the roster of New York City Opera, covering the role of Erika in Barber's opera Vanessa.  A 2007 member of Glimmerglass Opera's Young American Artist Program, she was heard as Pastore #3 in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo.  In addition to Glimmerglass Opera, Ms. Crider has also worked with the Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and Opera Boston. Ms. Crider was a 2006 finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition, and made her Carnegie Hall debut as Mezzo Soloist in Handel's Messiah with the New England Symphonic Ensemble in November 2007.  Ms. Crider's other oratorio credits include mezzo soloist in The Messiah with such orchestras as the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, the Savannah Symphony, and the Garden State Philharmonic; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia; and in Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with the Savannah Symphony.  Upcoming in the 2008 season Ms. Crider will return to Glimmerglass Opera to cover the role of Sesto in Giulio Cesare, and sing the role of Diana in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld in Eugene, Oregon.  Ms. Crider is the 2007 recipient of Palm Beach Opera's David and Ingrid Kosowsky Award.  She was a finalist in the 2005 Center for Contemporary Opera's International Voice Competition, and is a 2003 recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation.