ABOUT
In 2017 at The Glimmerglass Festival, mezzo-soprano Mary Beth Nelson was praised for singing with "virtuosic abandon... joyous flair and assured beauty of tone," as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Derrick Wang's comedic opera Scalia/Ginsburg- a modern opera which asks the question: What would happen if these ideologically opposed judges had to appear before a Higher Power?
As a young artist with the festival in Cooperstown, NY, she also appeared in 2016 in The Crucible (Betty Parris), Sweeney Todd (Ensemble/Quintet Soloist), The Thieving Magpie (Pippo cover), and Lost Luggage (Ernestina, Aug 19), and various ancillary programming throughout the two seasons. Claiming Upstate New York as her artistic home, she trained as a young artist for two summers in Schroon Lake during Seagle Music Colony's 99th and 100th anniversary seasons.
For the 2015-16 & 2016-17 seasons, Ms. Nelson was a resident artist with Tri-Cities Opera, where she made her guest artist debut as Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri in 2015. During her two-year residency in Binghamton, NY, she appeared in radio broadcasts as well as recitals, and debuted eight roles, including the feisty heroine Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dinah in Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, Flora in La Traviata, Hansel in Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel, and Concepción in the one-act opera L'heure espagnole by Maurice Ravel.
Ms. Nelson competed in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Tulsa district) in January of 2014 and won a Trudy Oliphant Young Encouragement Award. The following month she was awarded an Emerging Talent Award in the Lotte Lenya Competition from the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. She completed her Bachelor's degree after having won 1st Place prize and People's Choice Award in the 16th annual International Crescendo Music Awards in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Most recently, she was a Finalist and top audience choice award winner in the 9th Annual Lois Alba Aria Competition, and winner of the Jennifer White Memorial award in Shreveport Opera's Mary Jacob Smith Singer of the Year Competition.
Ms. Nelson is currently a member of the Florida Grand Opera studio, where in November 2017 she made her house debut as Alisa in Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor and was praised for her "ample voice and dark foreboding" by South Florida Classical Review.
As a young artist with the festival in Cooperstown, NY, she also appeared in 2016 in The Crucible (Betty Parris), Sweeney Todd (Ensemble/Quintet Soloist), The Thieving Magpie (Pippo cover), and Lost Luggage (Ernestina, Aug 19), and various ancillary programming throughout the two seasons. Claiming Upstate New York as her artistic home, she trained as a young artist for two summers in Schroon Lake during Seagle Music Colony's 99th and 100th anniversary seasons.
For the 2015-16 & 2016-17 seasons, Ms. Nelson was a resident artist with Tri-Cities Opera, where she made her guest artist debut as Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri in 2015. During her two-year residency in Binghamton, NY, she appeared in radio broadcasts as well as recitals, and debuted eight roles, including the feisty heroine Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dinah in Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, Flora in La Traviata, Hansel in Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel, and Concepción in the one-act opera L'heure espagnole by Maurice Ravel.
Ms. Nelson competed in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Tulsa district) in January of 2014 and won a Trudy Oliphant Young Encouragement Award. The following month she was awarded an Emerging Talent Award in the Lotte Lenya Competition from the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. She completed her Bachelor's degree after having won 1st Place prize and People's Choice Award in the 16th annual International Crescendo Music Awards in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Most recently, she was a Finalist and top audience choice award winner in the 9th Annual Lois Alba Aria Competition, and winner of the Jennifer White Memorial award in Shreveport Opera's Mary Jacob Smith Singer of the Year Competition.
Ms. Nelson is currently a member of the Florida Grand Opera studio, where in November 2017 she made her house debut as Alisa in Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor and was praised for her "ample voice and dark foreboding" by South Florida Classical Review.
Updated April 2018
