Opera Lafayette - Stephanie Houtzeel

Nominated one of the best up-and-coming singers of 2003 by OPERNWELT magazine for her performance of the Composer in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Stephanie Houtzeel has appeared most recently at the Zurich, Antwerp, Graz and St. Gallen Opera Houses. She sang the Composer in both Graz and Zurich, Nicklausse in Tales of Hoffmann in Antwerp, Octavian and Nicklausse in St. Gallen, as well as further roles in Graz such as Zerlina, Don Ramiro in Mozart's La finta giardiniera, Prince Orlofsky and Ino in Handel's Semele.

This season takes her to Antwerp again for Rosina in the Barber of Seville and to Graz for the title role in Der Rosenkavalier. In 05/06 she will return to Antwerp to sing the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and to Graz for Idamantes in Idomeneo and she will make her debut at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as the Fox in Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen.

Ms. Houtzeel began her operatic career in Linz, Austria and in Germany, where her roles included Rosina, Cenerentola, Cherubino, Meg Page, Suzuki and Octavian at the Opera in Linz and Dorabella at the Hersfelder Festspiele.

Also active in the baroque repertoire, Ms. Houtzeel has sung the title role in Handel's Ariodante and Galatea in Acis and Galatea with the Opera da camera Linz. In 2003 she toured for the first time with the Collegium Vocale Gent, singing the alto solos in cantatas and masses of Bach, under Philippe Herreweghe. She has also toured regularly with the Four Nations Ensemble of New York, performing, among others, works of Clérambault, Strozzi and Vivaldi. Her first recording of Handel cantatas, with the Bouts baroque Ensemble, received high praise from several publications including the American Record Review and Classics Today.

Since her 1997 recital debut at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Ms. Houtzeel has appeared on concert series including the New York Festival of Song, the Chamber Series of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, styriarte Graz, the International Bruckner Festival and the Great Performers Series of Lincoln Center. She has appeared as a concert soloist under conductors including Dennis Russell Davies, Philippe Jordan, Pinchas Steinberg, Eric Ericsson and Claus Peter Flor. In January 2004 she made her debut at the Vienna Musikverein as soloist in Mahler's Third Symphony.

Ms. Houtzeel has a BA in Political Science and French from Middlebury College, VT. She obtained her Masters of Music from the Juilliard School, where she studied voice with Edward Zambara. She was born in Kassel, Germany to German-Dutch parents and grew up near Boston, Massachusetts.

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