Biography
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. Ms. Selig has performed operatic roles with a number of US companies including Pittsburgh Opera, Kentucky Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Dayton Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Roanoke, Central City Opera, and Mobile Opera. In concert, she has sung with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Baroque, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, the Asheville Symphony, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and Erie Philharmonic.
Last season included a return to Santa Fe Opera to cover Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore and a role/company debut as Curley’s Wife in Of Mice and Men with Kentucky Opera for which Opera News noted that “she coped easily with the role's high tessitura, acting up a storm as a real slut of a character, yet projecting the emotional desperation behind the façade.” The season continued with recitals in Boston (Goethe Institut), New York (Calvary Concert Series), and Ames (Ames Town and Gown Chamber Music Association) with pianist Cameron Stowe and baritone Jesse Blumberg; Mahler’s 4th Symphony with Asheville Symphony; both Handel’s Messiah and Kodaly’s Te Deum with Cambridge Chorus; and Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 and Faure Requiem with Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus and Pro Arte Chamber Ensemble. Also this season, Ms. Selig won the Micki Savin Award from the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, First Prize in the Peter Elvins Competition, and was a finalist in the National Opera Association Competition.
After a summer 2010 fellowship at the Ravinia Festival Steans Program for Singers, Ms. Selig began the fall season with a reprise of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice for Soprano, Piano and Clarinet with the Five Boroughs Music Festival in New York, followed by debuts with Albany Symphony for Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Gil Morgenstern’s Reflections Concert Series in New York and Miami, with Chorus Pro Musica for Dvorak’s Mass in D Major, and a return to the Harvard-Radcliffe Choir for Haydn’s Theresienmesse. After the new year, Ms. Selig will bring her recital with Stowe and Blumberg to the Cosmos Club Music Series in Washington, DC and join reknowned pianist Martin Katz for a recital of Wolf and Schumann songs at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, MI. In addition, Ms. Selig will make debuts with the Longfellow Chorus and Orchestra for Elsie in Arthur Sullivan’s The Golden Legend, with the Nashoba Valley Chorale for Haydn’s Creation, and with the University of Wyoming Cultural Programs Series for a song recital and Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the University’s orchestra. Ms. Selig also looks forward to a return to Chautauqua Opera in 2011 for a role debut of Pamina in The Magic Flute and a return to Central City Opera in 2012 for Musetta in La Boheme.
During 2007-2009, Ms. Selig was a Resident Artist with the Pittsburgh Opera and an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera. With the Pittsburgh Opera, Ms Selig performed a number of new roles, including Norina (Don Pasquale), Elvira (L’italiana in Algeri), Musetta (La Boheme), Tina (Jonathan Dove’s Flight), Giannetta (L’Elisir d’Amore), and High Priestess (Aida). In addition, she covered the roles of Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Giulietta (I Capuleti ed I Montecchi), and Rosasharn (The Grapes of Wrath). With Santa Fe Opera, Ms. Selig covered both Musetta and Adina, in addition to appearing in scenes as Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Blanche (Dialogues of the Carmelites).
Other operatic appearances include Rose in Street Scene, Mary Warren in The Crucible, and Marion in The Music Man for Chautauqua Opera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni for Central City Opera, Nannetta in Falstaff for Opera Roanoke, both Adele in Die Fledermaus and Amy in Little Women for Dayton Opera, Valencienne in The Merry Widow for Mobile Opera, and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro for Connecticut Lyric Opera. Concert highlights are Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs and various recital appearances including Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Martin Katz.
Ms. Selig earned an Artist Diploma and Master of Music from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a summa cum laude BM/BA in Voice and English from The University of Michigan. Apprenticeships include Pittsburgh Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Tanglewood Music Center and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. Ms. Selig has received awards and grants from the Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Connecticut Opera Guild, Southern Ohio district of the Metropolitan Opera Competition, Shoshana Foundation, National Opera Association and the Anna Sosenko Trust.
“Selig was Rose -- her considerable beauty finely detailed, her voice richly capable of any emotional nuance, her character delineated by each gesture she made, her desperation almost palpable..."
Chautauqua Daily
“…the star throughout...her sense of line and nuance were matched only by the sheer beauty of her
tone and power of projection.” New London Day
“Deborah Selig was absolutely stunning as the peasant bride...” Cincinnati Enquirer
Copyright 2007 by Deborah Selig, All Rights Reserved
