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Constance Fee, M.M.

Voice, Opera, Diction; Director of Vocal Studies


585.594.6368
Fee_Constance@roberts.edu

Constance Fee has performed leading roles with the Opéra de la Bastille, Opéra Comique, and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris;  Opéra de Lyon, Netherlands Opera, New Israeli Opera, Welsh National Opera, l’Opéra Royal de Wallonie/Belgium, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper der Stadt Köln, Staatstheater Kassel, Vienna Volksoper, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City; and has collaborated with conductors Sir Charles Mackerras, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Patrick Summers, Myung-Whun Chung, David Robertson, and John Nelson, and stage directors Colin Graham, David Alden, John Cox, Robert Wilson, GianCarlo del Monaco, and François Rochaix.

Described in OPERNWELT Berlin as “vocally brilliant, dramatically spontaneous, and thoroughly alive,” her repertoire of over fifty soprano and mezzo-soprano roles includes the title roles in Puccini's Tosca, Bizet's Carmen, Rossini's La Cenerentola, Donizetti’s La Favorite, and Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, as well as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde; Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss; Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther; Augusta Tabor in Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe; Giulietta and Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann; Marina in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov; Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, and Idamante in Idomeneo by Mozart; and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Isolier in Le comte Ory by Rossini.

On the concert stage, she was the soloist with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the Rudolfinum in Prague in Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer and the Poulenc Stabat Mater in televised concerts celebrating the orchestra’s 100th anniversary; in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, at the Internationale Musikfestwochen in Lucerne, Switzerland; Honegger’s Jeanne d’arc au boucher at Salle Pleyel in Paris, recorded by Musique à Flaine/Beaufour; La damnation de Faust, Berlioz, International Festival of Besançon, France; New York Philharmonic, Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri; Milwaukee Symphony, Beethoven’s Mass in C; Saint Louis Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Handel’s Messiah; Indianapolis Symphony, Messiah; San Diego Symphony, Mozart Requiem; Lexington Philharmonic, Verdi Requiem; Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Robert Shaw, Riverside Church in New York City; Rossini Stabat mater and Mahler Kindertotenlieder, Staatsorchester Kassel; and in concert with pianist Rudolf Serkin at the Marlboro Music Festival.

Ms. Fee has taught voice and French diction on the faculty of the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Périgueux, France, and since 2014 has been a member of the voice faculty of the Crescendo Summer Institute in Tokaj, Hungary, where she will return in 2024. She served on the Alumni Council of her alma mater, Westminster Choir College, for over 10 years, most recently as president, and she is currently president of the Westminster Foundation.

Her students have won top awards at national and international competitions and have been offered full or partial scholarships for graduate vocal performance programs at the Juilliard School, Rice University, Indiana University, Cincinnati College-Conservatory, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, Bard College, Guildhall-London, Peabody Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Westminster Choir College; they have performed with opera companies including Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Washington National Opera, Chautauqua, Glimmerglass, Sarasota, Kansas City; and at the summer festival/young artist programs of Tanglewood, San Francisco Opera/Merola, Caramoor, Teatro Nuovo/Bel Canto, Aspen, Miami, Amalfi Coast, and Les Chorégies d’Orange, France.

Constance Fee is Director of Vocal Studies and Associate Professor of Vocal Performance at Roberts Wesleyan University in Rochester, NY. She received the Performer's Certificate in Opera Performance from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA; Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; and Bachelor of Vocal Music Education from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, from which she also received the Alumni Merit Award for Distinguished Achievement in Vocal Performance. A life-long student of Metropolitan Opera soprano Margaret Harshaw, she was a charter member of the Houston Opera Studio.

Recent Roberts Student and Alumni Accomplishments:

  • 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place Winners - NATS District Auditions 2023
  • 1st and 2nd Place Winners - NATS Eastern Region Auditions 2023
  • Young Artist - Merola Program, San Francisco Opera 2021, 2023
  • Encouragement Award - Met Opera Laffont Regional Auditions 2023
  • 3rd Place Classical Singer Competition, National Convention/SF 2023
  • National Semi-Finalist - Metropolitan Opera Laffont Auditions 2022
  • 1st place - Met Opera District Auditions 2022
  • 3rd Place - Montserrat Caballé International Opera Competition 2022
  • 1st Place (x3), 2nd Place, and 3rd Place Winners - NATS Eastern Region Auditions 2021
  • Encouragement Award - Met Opera Regional Auditions 2021
  • Winner - Met Opera District Auditions 2021
  • 1st and 2nd Place Winners - NATS District Auditions 2021
  • Young Artist - Merola Program, San Francisco Opera 2021, 2022
  • Encouragement Awards - Met Opera District & Regional Auditions 2020
  • Young Artist - Washington National Opera Cafritz program 2018-2020
  • Winner - Opera Ebony Vocal Competition, NYC 2019
  • Apprentice Artist - Miami Music Festival Opera Program 2018, 2019
  • Young Artist - Aspen Summer Festival Opera Theatre 2019
  • 1st Place Winner - NATS Eastern Regional Competition 2019
  • Young Artist - Teatro Nuovo Bel Canto Institute 2018
  • Young Artist - Opera Theatre of St. Louis 2018
  • 1st Place Winner - NATS District Competition 2017
  • 1st Place - Classical Singer Vocal Competition, National Convention/Boston 2016
  • Studio Artist - Sarasota Opera 2015