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The American soprano and teacher, Regina McConnell, began her undergraduate musical training at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Music in voice from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, and her Master of Music in voice from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She has won many awards, including the Great Lakes Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, the Marian Anderson Award, and the Center for Contemporary Opera Award.
Regina McConnell has performed to critical acclaim throughout the USA and Europe. She has performed extensively in opera, recital, and oratorio, and has appeared as a soloist with respected orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her performances with the Cleveland Orchestra include the role of St. Margaret in Arthur Honegger's Joan of Arc and a concert performance of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. She has been a frequent soloist at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, most notably as a soloist in George Frideric Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra in its annual “ Messiah Sing In.” Other Kennedy Center performances have included Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem , G.F. Handel's Solomon, and “The Immolation Scene” from Wagner's Gotterdammerung. She has appeared on a number of significant American concert series, including those at the National Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, the Pan American Union, and the Chrysler Museum. She has appeared as a soloist at the renowned Baldwin-Wallace College Bach Festival. In addition, she has numerous radio and television broadcast performances to her credit.
Her operatic career includes roles with the Lake Erie Opera Theater, the Annapolis Opera, the Washington Civic Opera, the Summer Opera Theater of Washington, and a performance with the National Opera Orchestra Workshop with Even Queler conducting. She sang the role of Serena in the American and European tour of the Sherwin Goldman landmark production of Porgy and Bess at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. She sang the role of Aurora in William Grant Still's Bayou Legend in performances at the University of Arizona (Flagstaff) and the Municipal Opera of Baltimore. Her artistry has been called “superb” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer , “spectacular”, “graceful and intense” by The Washington Post . New York critics defined her Serena as “well-sung” and refined.” Maryland Public Television described her as “a beautiful voice…an outstanding Countess.”
Her previous performed roles include Tosca, The Countess, Carmen, Mimi, Donna Anna, Marenka, Giulietta, Ariadne, Mme. Lidoine, and Elisabetta in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda . Opera News described that performance as “stunning.” In the world premiere of the opera, The Egg, Regina McConnell sang the role of the Beggar Woman with the composer, Giancarlo Menotti, as director and conductor. Her European engagements have included performances at the Vatican in Rome as a soloist in Samuel Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915 , with the Catholic University orchestra. Other appearances include the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina, Italy, the Deutsches Theater in Munich, and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Sicily. Recently, she performed at the celebrated Cleveland Institute of Music Art Song Festival.
Regina McConnell has recorded for both Dante and Centaur Records and has lectured extensively on “The Art Songs of Harry T. Burleigh” in venues that have included the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of London, the University of Northern Iowa, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Strathmore Hall, and Old Dominion University. Her compact disc of the same title has been critically acclaimed. This summer she returns to the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Vietri, Italy, to teach and to perform in concert. Her other engagements this season include the role of Garner in a Philadelphia performance of the acclaimed Leslie Burrs opera, Vanqui, and a solo recital at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, PA. She will also sing at the Sumner School in Washington, D.C., for the Friday Morning Music Club concert series.
Regina McConnell is on the voice faculty of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America and has also taught on the voice faculty of the University of Maryland. She is a member of the National Association of the Teachers of Singing (NATS), Friday Morning Music Club, International African-to-American Music Society, and the National Association of Negro Musicians. She is also an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota. |
