Biography of Musica Bella Orchestra soloist Barbara Staffen

Mezzo-soprano Barbara Staffen, originally from Chicago, began her professional singing career touring and recording with the Lira Singers, a group dedicated to promoting Polish music and culture. With Lira, Barbara toured Poland and the United States, performing in live concerts, on radio and television, and on various recordings. From there Barbara delved into Gilbert and Sullivan operettas with numerous companies in the Chicago area, and then on to opera and concert work. Among her opera roles performed to date are Fenena (Nabucco), Katisha (The Mikado), Gertrude (Romeo et Juliette), Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), La Zia Principessa (Sour Angelica), Madame Larina (Eugene Onegin), the Duchess (The Gondoliers), Hata (The Bartered Bride), the Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas), Annina (La Traviata), and Carmen. Northern Illinois’ Pioneer Press noted that her performance of Constance (The Sorcerer) “combined a fine voice with true comic ability,” while Peter Jacobi of Bloomington, Indiana’s Herald Times raved that her Mrs. Herring in Albert Herring was “done to a turn.” Barbara has toured throughout Illinois with the Opera for the Young as Dr. Dulcamara (Elixir of Love) reworked for mezzo. Solo concert work includes Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabeus, and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, alto soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, and the alto soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria.       Now living in New York, she most recently performed the Countess in Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades) with West Bay Opera in Palo Alto, CA. Of her performance, Keith Kreitman of the San Mateo County Times raved of her “rich and lyrical mezzo-soprano” and “ability to dominate the stage with her well-paced dramatic presence.” November, 2006 marked her professional international debut in Fukushima, Japan as the alto soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Yamagata Symphony. Other recent engagements include Cecily (La Divina, Pasatieri) and Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflote) with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, Adalgisa (Norma) with Center Stage Opera in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Witch (Hansel and Gretel) with Commonwealth Opera of Western MA. Recent concert work includes the Mezzo-Soprano Soloist in Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio and Alto Soloist in the Mozart Requiem, both with the Middletown City Chorale, Middletown, NY. She was also featured in a special solo appearance at Avery Fisher Hall.       An accomplished instrumentalist, Barbara played oboe and English horn for many years around the Chicago area in orchestras, concert bands, and chamber ensembles including the Do It Yourself Messiah Orchestra under the baton of Margaret Hillis and the Roosevelt University Symphony Orchestra. She completed her BM in Voice Performance as a full scholarship student at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in January 1996. Her major teachers included Patricia Deckert and Peter Amster. While at Roosevelt, she participated in master classes with Dalton Baldwin, Richard Boldrey, Lorenzo Malfatti, and David Schrader. She was then accepted with scholarship into the Summer Vocal Institute at UC Santa Barbara, where she continued vocal studies with Elizabeth Mannion and also worked with Fiora Contino, Paulina Stark, Susan Morton, and Clayton Garrison. Additional coaches have included Mark Phelps in Bloomington, Ernest Knell, Mitchell Cirker, and Joan Krueger.       In addition to her singing, Barbara is active as a producer for concerts and other special events in and around New York.       She will be the alto soloist in Musica Bella’s presentation of Bach’s Mass in B Minor on January 26 and 27, 2008. Musica Bella concerts: January 26, 2008; January 27, 2008 This bio last updated December 15, 2007