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The American soprano, teacher and and librettist, Jennifer Cresswell, studied at Bowling Green State University. She obtained her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Voice and Opera from the University of Michigan (2018-May 2021), where she was named a Presidential Graduate Fellow by the Rackham Graduate School and an Elsie Choy Lee Scholar by the Center for the Education of Women. Her work with Interstate earned the Social Impact Award from the School of Music, Theatre and Dance EXCEL Lab, and her dissertation, Murder, She Sang: A Progression on Sopranos and Death, has been called "groundbreaking" and an "outstanding contribution to the field."
An accomplished teacher, public speaker, and performer, Jennifer Cresswell has performed leading operatic roles from the traditional canon, including Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana (BGSU Opera Theatre, February 2016), Donna Elvira in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni (February 2013), and Liù in Turandot (Toledo Opera, May 2012). She is dedicated to singing in her native tongue and finding the beauty and humanity in otherwise unsympathetic characters, and her true operatic passion lies in American Opera. The 2021-2022 season saw performances as Olivia in Interstate, with music by Kamala Sankaram, for which Jennifer also served as co-librettist with Kathleen Kelly, the world premiere of Felix Jarrar's Bonfire Opera (composed for Cresswell and Kelly), Cherubino in the 12-hour marathon performance piece Bliss (May 2020), Mrs. Ford in Frida, and premiering the roles of the Social Worker and News Reporter in Anothony Davis's opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X with Detroit Opera (May 2020). Other American Opera favorites in her repertoire include Magda Sorel in The Consul, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Charlotte in Before Breakfast, and Hannah After in As One. She is also an accomplished recitalist and concert performer, including performances as soloist for L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor BWV 232 (August 2016), George Frideric Handel's Messiah (Toledo Symphony Orchestra, December 2022), Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah (University of Michigan, July 2019), and Francis Poulenc's Gloria (United Methodist in Toledo, April 2014). She has recently been heard as Der Trommler in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, as a soloist with the Toledo Symphony, and in concerts featuring the music of George Gershwin and Kurt Weill with tenor George Shirley.
As visiting faculty at the Interlochen Arts Academy for the 2022-2023 academic year (August 2022-May 2023), Jennifer Cresswell has maintained a voice studio of classical, pop, jazz, and musical theatre students, as well as created curriculum on vocal health for the contemporary department and served as conductor for Dido and Aeneas. An accomplished writer, she has served as librettist for multiple new works, published articles in Classical Singer, Middle Class Artist, and An Injustice! magazines, and had her poetry read as part of the WHY Collective’s performances in Time Square. 2023 also brought her to Detroit as the Keynote Speaker and Master Clinician for the Detroit Women’s Chorus, a residency at the University of Louisiana as a specialist in Kurt Weill, and as a faculty member and guest artist at Spotlight on Opera, where she debuted her latest theatrical recital experience, NOIR: Celebrating the Femme Fatales of Old Hollywood.
As a librettist, Jennifer Cresswell has translated and created six opera reductions for school outreach tours, and has written one original opera libretto, Respectable Woman, with composer Kristi Fullerton.
The fall of 2023 Jennifer Cresswell relocating to Chicago, where she will continue to perform and maintain her private studio. She is available for master-classes, guest residencies, and recital bookings. |
