DEBORAH MASSELL, Soprano, holds over four decades' experience in vocal performance in Europe and North America. She has appeared in leading roles such as Pamina, Susanna, Despina, Sophie, Zerlina, Servilia, Semele, Bastienne, Euridice, and Belinda, as well as several world premieres, and performed as soloist in a great number of concerts, oratorios, recitals, and chamber music, including in many works composed especially for her voice.
She has sung in acclaimed opera houses such as the Hamburg State Opera under General Director Rolf Liebermann, Theater Basel, the Gärtnerplatz Theater and the Salzburg Mozarteum, as well as the Vienna, Schleswig-Holstein, Gmunden, St. Bart's, Mostly Mozart, Recklinghausen, and Caramoor Festivals. She has performed in concert venues such as the United Nations, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Town Hall. She has worked with noted conductors including Julius Rudel, Stefan Soltesz, Klauspeter Seibel, Niksa Bareza, Gerard Schwarz, Lukas Foss, Hans Zender, Michel Corboz, René Jacobs, and Thierry Fischer, and stage directors Peter Ustinov, Herbert Wernicke, and John Neumeier. Orchestral collaborations include the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, North German Radio Orchestra, Hamburg State Orchestra, Orchestre de Genève, Ensemble Vocal & Instrumental de Lausanne, and Dortmund Musikverein. In recital she has been heard with artists such as Warren Jones, Walter Berry, Brian Zeger, and Eugene Asti, and has had intensive study in Art Song and operatic vocal literature with the legendary Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Gérard Souzay, Dalton Baldwin, and Hugues Cuénod.
She has performed educational programs of operatic arias and scenes for families through the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Children's Free Opera of New York (Orchestra of St. Luke's), and the Mexico City Opera. Ms Massell has also performed on the video Ears Wide Open, an introduction to classical music for children.
In addition to recording for Austrian, German, and Swiss radio, her discography includes Gluck's Echo et Narcisse (CD and video), the songs of Jacques Leguerney with Kurt Ollmann and Mary Dibbern in close collaboration with the composer, both on the Harmonia Mundi label, and the award-winning video The Bald Soprano with the Center for Contemporary Opera in NYC.
Dr. Massell has been on the faculty of The Crane School of Music since 2000. In addition to teaching voice and diction classes at Crane, she co-directs the Nanjing International Summer Vocal Program, and has taught at Hunter College and the Miami University Frost School of Music Summer Program in Salzburg. She holds a B.A. degree with Honors in Music from Hamilton College, a Master’s degree from The Mannes College of Music, and a Doctorate from the Université de Montréal.
Graduates of Dr. Massell’s studio are working as professional opera singers at the Metropolitan Opera, among other U.S. regional opera houses, and are permanent members and guests at German opera houses in Wuppertal, Wiesbaden, and Kiel. Her students are featured as vocal and dance leads in national Broadway tours. They have attended prestigious Young Artist Programs such as Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Merola Opera Program, Santa Fe Opera, Tanglewood Music Center, and Glimmerglass Opera. They have attended graduate programs at The Juilliard School, University of Southern CA, Indiana University, Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes College of Music, and have placed first at the George London Foundation Competition and reached the semi-finals of the Laffont Competition (formerly the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions).