iography

Colleen Brooks, mezzo-soprano, completed her DMA in vocal performance at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) in Cincinnati, OH. She holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from Indiana University as well as bachelor’s degrees in both vocal performance and biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has had the privilege of coaching with current American composers such as Thomas Pasatieri, Jake Heggie, and William Bolcom and even performed with Mr. Heggie at the Grandin Music Festival in Cincinnati in 2006. Ms. Brooks won the Wisconsin District round of the Metropolitan Opera Competition in 2009. She was a studio artist with Florentine Opera for the 2008-09 season where she performed the roles of Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) and 3rd Lady (The Magic Flute). She made her debut last spring with Tulsa Opera in the role of Garcias in Massenet’s Don Quichotte, and this past summer she was a young artist in San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. Additional roles performed include Rosina, Hansel, Nora in Vaughan William’s Riders to the Sea, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi, Catherine in A View from the Bridge, Piramo in Piramo e Tisbe, and Mrs. Webb in a workshop performance of Rorem’s Our Town. She has also performed as a concert soloist in Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Stravinsky’s Les Noces.