Stephanie Weiss hired as assistant professor of voice in the School of Music
The School of Music is pleased to welcome Stephanie Weiss, who has been hired as the new assistant professor of voice, starting in fall 2016.
“We are delighted that Stephanie Weiss will join our faculty this fall,” said Heather Landes, director of the School of Music. “Weiss’ broad experience on the operatic stage in Germany and the United States, her command of German, French and vocal diction, and her research interests in vocal pedagogy and teaching young dramatic voices align well with the outstanding voice and Lyric Opera Theatre faculty at the ASU School of Music.”
A current assistant professor of music/studio voice at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Weiss holds degrees from New England Conservatory (voice) and Tufts University (biology and drama), University of Missouri-Kansas City (MM), Mannes College of Music (Professional Studies Diploma) and UNLV (DMA).
“I am really looking forward to working with the extremely talented students at ASU alongside its renowned faculty, and to helping the students find themselves as artists and discover the many ways that they can be relevant in the current artistic climate,” says Weiss. “This new position at ASU will allow me to teach not only classical singing, which has been my expertise and my career path, but also to teach musical theater students, which is one of my secret passions and the reason I started singing in the first place.”
Previously, she was on the faculties at UMKC Community School Division, the New York State Summer School for the Arts and the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music, and was a Teaching Fellow with the Metropolitan Opera Education Department. In 2015, she was on the faculty of COSI (Centre for Opera Studies in Italy) in Sulmona, Italy. Since 2010, she has been on the voice faculty at AIMS in Graz, Austria.
Weiss’s research focuses on Zwischenfach, a specific voice category between mezzo-soprano and soprano, which is specifically used in the German repertoire by composers such as Wagner and Strauss.
“Many people outside of Germany don’t know how to address this voice type, and even there, it is problematic. In a related field to Zwischenfach, I am also interested in the pedagogical issues of teaching young dramatic voices, as well as studying learning processes, outcomes and psychological issues for singers/students with various learning disabilities, which has emerged from my work with young students.”
Weiss was a Midwest Regional Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. As the winner of the American Berlin Opera Foundation Competition, she became a member of Deutsche Oper Berlin in the 2004/2005 season. Weiss has continued to be a regular guest at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Other appearances have included the Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the L’viv Philharmonic (Ukraine), Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, Oper Dortmund, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Köln, Oper Leipzig, Singakademie Potsdam and Stadttheater Bern, and in the United States at Opera Las Vegas, San Diego Opera and the Opera Company of Middlebury.