Anne Jennifer Nash is heralded as an exceptional lyric soprano with an “uncommon beauty of expression and musicianship.”
–Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times.
2017-2018 performances include: Bea in Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, an American Art Song recital in Oxford, UK, Ralph Vaughn Williams’s oratorio Dona Nobis Pacem, and multiple performances of Sister-Show Me Eternity, a touring collaboration between faculty from Skidmore College, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Concordia College on the life of poet Emily Dickinson.
Opera performance highlights include appearances with Opera Philadelphia, Florentine Opera, Opera New Jersey, Opera Saratoga, Pine Mountain Music Festival, Lancaster Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, National Opera Company, Interlochen Arts Festival and Bard SummerScape, in the roles of Susanna, Zerlina, Pamina, Despina, Nanetta, Alice Ford, Laurie, Adina, Armide, and Anne Trulove, among others.
A sought-after performer of new music, Dr. Nash has premiered several works including René Clausen’s 2017 oratorio The Passion of Jesus Christ at Orchestral Hall in Minneapolis, MN. She is a regular collaborator with Indiana-based composer Allen McCullough, and in 2015 she premiered his award winning song cycle and Lotte Lehman Foundation commission, The Blue Symphony. Dr. Nash also worked with Libby Larsen at Pepperdine University on the 2011 premier of Donal Oge, commissioned for Dr. Nash by SongFest and the Sorel Foundation. Her recording of the work with pianist Nathan Salazar can be found on the CD “New American Song@SongFest.”
Recent orchestral performances include Haydn’s Mass in the Time of War, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Brahms’ Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Haydn’s Creation, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, and Poulenc’s Gloria.
Conference performances and presentations include “Transforming Art Song into Music Theatre-the creative process of Sister Show me Eternity” at the 2018 NATS National Conference, and “Cusqueño Compositions: Life and Works of Armando Guevara Ochoa,” at the 2017 College Music Society International Conference in Sydney, Australia.
A frequent guest clinician, Dr. Nash has presented master classes at Skidmore College, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Washington State University, University of Idaho, University of Michigan, Hope College, and Dickinson College. In 2015, her teaching was nationally recognized by invitation to join the prestigious NATS Intern program. Her students are frequent winners at NATS competitions and attend premier summer programs and graduate schools.
Dr. Nash holds a DMA in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan where she was the Elise Choy Lee Scholar for Exceptional Merit, Commitment, and Promise. Her mentors include Martin Katz and Freda Herseth. In 2012, she joined the voice faculty of Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, as Assistant Professor; there she teaches studio voice, diction, and opera scenes, and interdisciplinary classes with the German department.
Prior to completing her DMA, Dr. Nash taught at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Pennsylvania. She holds MM and GPD degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, and BA degrees in Music and French literature from Dickinson College, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Dr. Nash is a founding faculty member of the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Piobbico, Italy, and the Apprentice Program Coordinator for the Cornish-American Song Institute in Oxford and Falmouth, UK.
A native of Pittsford, New York, Dr. Nash can be found (when not teaching or performing) riding dressage on Swedish Warmbloods and volunteering at local animal shelters.
