2019 Concert Series Messiah | Page 15

Tessa has held opera fellowships at Aspen Opera Center, and CU New Opera Workshop where she premiered the role of Dame in Dame, Not Lady by S. Wellington. Past awards include First Place in the Florida Grieg Voice Competition, Winner of The Art of Art Song Competition, and Winner of the Franco-American Vocal Academy’s Grand Concours Prize. Past recitals have included works in Nynorsk and Dano-Norwegian, as well as in the Hindustani and Carnatic musical styles. TESSA ROMANO mezzo-soprano Tessa Romano is Lecturer in Voice at the University of Otago School of Performing Arts. She received her DMA in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado Boulder, her MMus in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and her BA from Princeton University in Italian and Vocal Performance. Originally from Syracuse, New York, Dr Romano has performed with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, American Handel Society, and the Sound Symphony. She has also worked as a choral scholar with world-renowned British a cappella group VOCES8 in their US Choral Scholars programme and looks forward to working with them again in the 2020 World Choral Symposium in Auckland. Dr Romano has studied under Jennifer Bird, Freda Herseth, Christopher Arneson, Richard Lalli, and Helen Boatwright. Notable opera roles include the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, Jade Boucher in Dead Man Walking, and Mother Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites. She is thrilled to be singing with Auckland Choral in Auckland Town Hall for the first time. 15