Biography
Soprano Soprano Deborah Selig is quickly gaining recognition for her rich, shimmering voice, her excellent artistic instincts and her fine execution of the lyric soprano repertoire. A native of Washington, DC, Ms. Selig has performed operatic roles with a number of US companies including Pittsburgh Opera, Dayton Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Roanoke, Central City Opera, Mobile Opera and Connecticut Lyric Opera. In concert, she has sung with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Baroque, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Chatham Baroque, the CCM Chamber Orchestra, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Selig’s full performance schedule has included excellent successes in recent seasons. Assignments over the last two seasons as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera included Norina in Don Pasquale, Elvira in L’Italiana in Algeri, Musetta in La Boheme (student matinee), Tina in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Giannetta in L’Elisir d’Amore and High Priestess in Aida. Ms. Selig also sang the soprano solo in a fully staged production of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice for Soprano, Piano and Clarinet – a highlight of her season. Ms. Selig also added cover assignments of Giulietta in I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, and Rosasharn in Grapes of Wrath with the company. Other recent role debuts include Rose in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene for Chautauqua Opera and Nannetta in Falstaff with Opera Roanoke. This past summer, Ms. Selig returned to Santa Fe Opera to cover Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore . Upcoming engagements include Curley’s Wife in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men with Kentucky Opera, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Ashville Symphony, Faure’s Requiem and Mendlessohn’s Psalm 42 with the Harvard-Radcliffe Choir, Handel’s Messiah with Cambridge Community Chorus, and a recital tour with baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Cameron Stowe in Boston, New York and Iowa.
Other opera roles recently performed include Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro for Connecticut Lyric Opera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni for Central City Opera, Valencienne in The Merry Widow for Mobile Opera, both Adele in Die Fledermaus and Amy in Little Women for Dayton Opera, and both Mary Warren in The Crucible and Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof for Chautauqua Opera. In addition, she has covered Abigail in The Crucible and Marion in The Music Man also for Chautauqua Opera.
On the concert stage, Ms. Selig has performed the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Faure’s Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs with various orchestras in the US. Her song recital appearances include Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Martin Katz in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ms. Selig is the recipient of the distinguished Agnes M. Canning Memorial Award from Santa Fe Opera, the Anna Sosenko Trust Award, the Shoshana Foundation Richard F. Gold Career Grant from Chautauqua Opera, and is a winner of the Southern Ohio district Metropolitan Opera Competition, the Corrine Maffei Award from Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, and 2nd place award in the National Opera Association Competition. Ms. Selig was also chosen as a finalist in both the Jensen Foundation Competition and the Liederkranz Competition (lieder division).
Ms. Selig received an Artist Diploma in Opera and a Master of Music from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). She is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan where she received a double-degree in Voice Performance and English. At CCM, she performed her first Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro as well as Sandrina in La Finta Giardiniera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. Ms. Selig has completed training programs with Pittsburgh Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Tanglewood Music Center, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy and the Bay View Music Festival.
Copyright 2007 by Deborah Selig, All Rights Reserved
