Emily Waller
Voice
Emily Jane Waller is an established mezzo-soprano whose focus is within the dramatic and verismo repertoire. Ms. Waller will make her international debut as guest artist and guest speaker at the Bonn International School in Bonn, Germany in Spring 2024. Currently, she has returned to Michigan State University to obtain a third degree in Music Education. Ms. Waller has performed the roles Handmaiden/villager in Turandot, with Michigan Opera Theater, Giulietta in Les Contes d`Hoffmann, Baba the Turk in The Rakes Progress, Café Girl in La Bohème, Nettie Fowler in Carousel, and Mama Maddelena in Nine, all with the Michigan State University Opera Theater. She has done extensive scene study of the roles of Brünnhilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Elsa (Lohengrin), Rusalka (Rusalka), Arabella (Arabella), and Ellen(Peter Grimes).
Ms. Waller has been a guest artist with Westminster Choir College, Traverse City Symphony, University of North Texas Opera, Philadelphia Symphony, The Summit of Florida, and All Saints Episcopal Church and First Presbyterian Church recital series concerts, in East Lansing and Mount Clemens, MI respectively.
Ms. Waller has worked with directors that include Garrnet Bruce, Marc Verzatt, Melanie Helton, Richard Crittenden and Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios. She has sung in Master Classes for Deborah Birnbaum, Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Hundley, Larry Alan Smith, Darren Hagen, Stephen Wadsworth and Julian Rodescu. Voice coaches have included Marie-France Lefebvre, J.J Penna, Nova Thomas, Daniel Beckwith, Robert Thieme, and Thomas Hetrick. Voice teachers have included Melanie Helton, Leyna Gabriele, Sharon Sweet, Molly Fillmore, Dr. Stephen Austin, Irina Mishura, and currently with Dr. Stephen Morscheck and music education mentor Dr. Mitchell Robinson.
As a chorister Emily has performed with; Mosaic Ensemble, Westminster Kantorei for the World Premieres of Stefan Young’s O! Vengeance! and Caleb Burhan’s Super Flumina Babylonis, with the Westminster Symphonic Choir in A Tribute to Christoph Eschenbach: Symphony of a Thousand, and with Westminster Kantorei, Saint Matthew Passion. In addition, as a chorister, she performed with the Michigan State University Chorale, Michigan State University Women Ensemble, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Phildadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, under the batons of Dr. David Rayl, Kevin Rhodes, Dr. Joe Miller, Dr. Andrew Megill, David Robertson, Christoph Eschenbach, Franz Welser-Möst, and Kurt Masur at world-reknown locations such as Detroit Orchestra Hall, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the former Avery-Fisher Hall and New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Verizon Hall.
Ms . Waller holds a Masters of Music in Voice Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College and a dual Bachelors of Music in Performance and Music Education from Michigan State University. She continues to teach voice and coach theater in East Lansing, MI where she lives with her husband and twin daughters.
