Soprano Rachel Hall to direct masterclass April 21

Soprano Rachel Hall will direct a masterclass on Saturday, April 21 at 10 a.m. in the Stewart Room of the Randall Campus Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Hall has been praised as "a force of nature... with a gracefully huge voice" (Berkshire Fine Arts) for her August 2017 breakout performances in the title role in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen with New York's Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble. The habitually fastidious New York press lauded her as "simply astonishing... a warm soprano of full body, easily fluidity and perfectly consistent tone... completely alive to every moment on the stage" (New York Classical). 

Throughout the 2017–2018 season, Hall rejoins Opera Company of Middlebury to both perform Giannetta and cover Adina in L'elisir d'amore, making her role debut as Fiordiligi in Opera on the James' production of Così fan tutte, and rejoins the Canton Symphony as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana. In the 2016–2017 season, Ms. Hall joined the roster of the Jacksonville Symphony on short notice to cover the role of Gretel in the orchestra's winter holiday performances of Hansel and Gretel. 

Additional recent stage performances include Ms. Hall's role debuts as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera and Adina in L'elisir d'amore (the latter with Shreveport Opera), her Lincoln Center debut as Gretel in a new production of Hansel and Gretel with the Little Orchestra Society at Avery Fisher Hall, and an eight-month stint as Adeline in the original off-Broadway production of Serenade. Her concert appearances include a Mostly Mozart program with Annapolis Opera, her Santa Fe Symphony debut as the soprano soloist for Mozart's Exsultate jubilate, her Canton Symphony debut as the soprano soloist for Brahms' Deutsches Requiem and her return to the Canton Symphony as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. 

Ms. Hall initially earned national attention for her mainstage debut as Barbarina in Santa Fe Opera's 2013 production of Le nozze di Figaro, for which she was hailed as a "musically nuanced, clear soprano with a perfectly charming stage presence" (Ionarts). Her repertoire in the Apprentice Scenes Showcases included Dalinda in Handel's Ariodante, Norina in Don Pasquale, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, and Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw. She also fulfilled a young artist residency with Shreveport Opera, performing Micaëla in La tragédie de Carmen, and Valencienne in The Merry Widow. In 2015, Ms. Hall won an encouragement award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (North Carolina district).

Hall earned her Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of illustrious soprano, teacher, and director Catherine Malfitano. She holds Bachelor degrees in both Music Performance and Music Education from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.