Suzanne Fatta mezzo-soprano

Italian-American mezzo-soprano, early musician, and musicologist Suzanne Fatta has been praised for her rich tone, musicality, expressivity, and musical intelligence -- she is a graduate student pursuing a PhD in Vocal Performance Practice at the University of York, UK, studying early music, with John Potter (Hilliard Ensemble, The Dowland Project, Red Byrd, Gavin Bryars Ensemble), Jonathan Wainwright, Peter Seymour and Lynne Dawson. She just performed 2 lead roles in the world-premiere of Jon Hughes' opera "Antigone," by Viriditas Opera, in May 2008; her performance was hailed as "magnificent," "brilliant" and "wonderful -- astonishingly good acting!" Upcoming engagements include Hildegard von Bingen's "Ordo virtutum" (Viriditas Opera), Renaissance workshops in the UK and Italy this summer, and solos with York Opera. Sue currently sings with Viriditas Opera, University Chamber Choir, University Choir, YoMAMA, Medieval Music Society, York Post-Grad Vocal Ensemble, and York Opera, among other groups. She also trained at Oberlin, Harvard and Eastman and is passionate about combining performance and scholarship -- her PhD dissertation will be on the madrigals of Sigismondo d'India....... Sue was awarded the highly competitive Lady Roslyn Lyons Masters Scholarship which covers all tuition expenses during her studies. Recently, she was appointed into both the Music and Religion departments of Canisius College as an adjunct professor; her courses included ‘Sacred Musics of the World’ and ‘Zen and the Meditative Tradition.’ She sang as a chorister, soloist and Section Leader/ paid singer with both the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Chamber Singers. Sue toured central Europe this past summer with the BPC, Virginia Symphony Chorus and the Northern Czech Philharmonic......... She holds a dual BA with honors from Oberlin College & Conservatory in Musicology and Religion, where she studied early music, vocal performance, early Modern history, gender studies, and contemporary religious thought. Sue attained a Masters from Harvard Divinity School, with a certification in Gender Studies, in Medieval Religions. She also worked as a Research Assistant and Teaching Fellow in the Harvard Music Department, teaching courses in World Music and Jazz, for which she won a university-wide teaching award. Sue began a PhD at the Eastman School of Music in Musicology and Historical Performance practice; she specializes in music of the 16th – 17th centuries. Her secondary fields include ethnomusicology, ritual studies, 20th century music, Buddhism, and medieval history....... For the past few summers, she has participated in a workshop with the world-renowned Tallis Scholars in Oakham, UK and is interested in all aspects of historical performance practice. She has studied voice with Lynne Dawson, Robert Vehar, Cristen Gregory, Patrick Craig, Jan Coxwell, Ghislaine Morgan, Mary Grandy, Pamela Dellal, Dan McCabe, Maestro Carlo Morganti, Gerald Crawford, Daune Mahy, Peggy Atkinson, Gayle Palmer, Steve Peeler, Christine Stark, and Genia Las. She has also had the pleasure of performing under the direction of John Potter, Peter Seymour, Robert Shoup, Marvin Hamlisch, Kathleen Keenan-Takagi, JoAnn Falletta, L. Brett Scott, Robert Franz, Ron Spiegelman, Patrick Macey, Paul O’Dette, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Peter Phillips, Andrew Carwood, David Skinner, David Woodcock, Lorna Cooke de Varon, Richard Giarusso, Steven Plank, Apollo’s Fire, Concerto Palatino, Lisa Goode Crawford, Ruth Saltman, and Frank Scinta. She has also had coachings or master classes with Anna Maria Friman, Randol Bass, Robert Porco, Vance George and Dan McCabe.......... In college, she was a radio host at WOBC, as DJ Hildegard, of two shows; “Magnum Mysterium,” Renaissance vocal polyphony, and “Tonality Sucks!” all pre- and post-tonal music. For a number of summers, she worked as a counselor and instructor at a music camp in Maine (Camp Encore/ Coda, which she had attended as a camper) -- there, Sue taught private voice lessons, led vocal performance classes, directed jazz and chamber choirs, taught all levels of music theory and history, and ran the music library. Sue was a contestant on Jeopardy! in 2001 and was married in October 2005; she also has extensive stage and modeling experience (print, runway, TV). Finally, she has won both creative and academic writing contests at the local, state and national level......... Sue has studied Italian, Spanish, German, French and Latin with a little Greek, Portuguese and Sanskrit thrown in for fun. She has also sung in Hebrew, Friûlan, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish, Russian, old Church Slavonic, Provençal, and Catalan (thank you IPA!)....... Some favorite pieces include Monteverdi - Vespers 1610, Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, Berg - Wozzeck, Messiaen - Quatour pour la fin du temps, Tallis - Lamentations of Jeremiah, and most of Byrd's Gradualia. But her performance and research interests range from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras through 21st century new music.&nbsp