Kate Aldrich has performed leading roles at opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the Bavarian Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires, Hamburg State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Regio di Torino, L'Arena di Verona, Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Opéra de Marseille, Opéra de Montréal, Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon, and NCPA Beijing.
Known for her repertoire and strong acting, Aldrich made her professional debut at the Arena di Verona in 2000 as Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino. Her roles have ranged from Nerone in L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Liceu, Oper am Rhein) to Adalgisa in Norma (Bologna, Montréal, Vancouver); Eboli in Don Carlo (Wallonie) and the Foreign Princess in Rusalka (Theater an der Wien) to Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda (San Diego, Palermo) and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia(Lisbon, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Opera Carolina); Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust (Lyon, Wiener Symphoniker) to Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito (Prague, Teatro Real Madrid, Innsbrucker Festwochen); and Oktavian in Der Rosenkavalier (Marseille), Ascanio in Benvenuto Cellini (Salzburg Festival), and Charlotte in Werther (Torino, Lyon) — plus rarer works: Rossini's Zelmira (Pesaro), Mariotte's Salome (Montpellier), and Reyer's Salammbô (Marseille).
Hailed by the San Francisco Sentinel as "the Carmen of this Generation," Aldrich has sung Bizet's title role at the Met, San Francisco Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Chorégies d'Orange, Deutsche Oper Berlin, New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Maine, Pittsburgh Opera, Arena di Verona, Zurich Opernhaus, NCPA Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul.
With the Palazzetto Bru Zane she has performed and recorded rare works: Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys (Margared), Saint-Saëns's Déjanire (title role) and Silver's La Belle au Bois Dormant (Urgèle), Massenet's Ariane (Phèdre) and Le Mage (Varedha), Spontini's Olimpie (Statira), and Dukas's Sémélé (Junon). Her Ascanio (2007 Salzburg Benvenuto Cellini), Adalgisa (Bologna Norma), Dulcinée (Don Quichotte), Adriano (Berlin Rienzi), Leonore (Toulouse La Favorite), and Amneris (Zeffirelli's Aida, Busseto) are all on DVD. She also recorded Mariotte's Salome (Montpellier) and, drawing on her baroque training, Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Alessandro De Marchi, performed at the Handel Festival Halle and Bologna Festival.
On the concert stage, Aldrich has sung Mahler's Symphony No. 3, Berlioz's La Mort de Cléopâtre, and Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder with the Mozarteum Orchestra; Verdi's Requiem with the Pittsburgh Symphony; Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in Bologna and Paris; Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragödie (San Francisco Symphony, Montpellier), plus Ravel's Shéhérazade; and Stravinsky's Pulcinella and Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien with Radio France under Daniele Gatti. She has sung both solo parts of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle at Pesaro and Washington.
Her honors include the 2002 Operalia Culturarte prize, a 2006 Richard Tucker grant, the Vidda Award (a 2006 Weill Recital Hall/Carnegie Hall recital), and the Czech Republic's Radok Theatre Prize and Thalie Prize (both 2006, for La Clemenza di Tito).\