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Biography

New York City-based operatic soprano Jessica Thompson is “spirited” and “a dynamic actress” (The Baltimore Sun).  Her love for opera began in elementary school when her father would play it in the car on the way to school.  One day her teacher asked, “Are you listening to your Dad’s music today?”  Jessica responded, “No!  It’s MY music!”  She officially began studying classical voice at the age of 14 with Metropolitan Opera Soprano Marjorie Gordon and never turned back.  Her lush and full lyric voice has performed numerous leading roles including Violetta (Verdi's La Traviata), Manon (Massenet's Manon), Vixen (Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen), and Snow White (Luigi Zaninelli’s Snow White)

 

She received a bachelor of music degree in Voice Performance and a minor in Music History from Syracuse University where she studied with Jennifer Kay.  The university awarded her the Joanna & Roger Moore Award for Vocal Excellence in Opera in 2007.  Her master of music and graduate performance diploma in Voice Performance were awarded to her from Peabody Conservatory where she studied with Ah Young Hong.  There she performed several roles with the opera department including “Manon” and the “Vixen”, and was a two-time winner of the George Castelle Memorial Award in Voice. 

 

Also in Baltimore, Miss Thompson was active in the contemporary music scene premiering a short opera by Alex Gil-Marca and performing a recital at various venues of exclusively modern compositions including Judith Weir’s Scotch Minstrelsy and Libby Larsen’s Try Me Good King: Words from the Wives of Henry VIII.  She has followed her love for contemporary music to New York City where she has joined the Center for Contemporary Opera as Company Manager, Stage Manager, and performer.  This past summer, she successfully multi-tasked all three of these jobs during CCO’s New Opera Week’s atelier performances of Jiří Kadeřábek’s Kafka’s Women and Todd Goodman’s Night of the Living Dead.  She has also performed the roles of Speaker/Antonio/Billy in Susan Kander’s new opera, News from Poems, and Rosa/Journalist in Eric Salzman's Big Jim and the Small Time Investors.  

 

Miss Thompson has studied and performed in St. Andrews, Scotland, and Graz, Austria, with the Oxenfoord International Summer School and the American Institute of Musical Studies, respectively.  She has worked with artists such as Edoardo Müller, Malcolm Martineau, Gabrielle Lechner, John Shirley-Quirk, and Richard McKee. 

 

In New York City, Miss Thompson is currently in the studio of Beth Roberts, and coaches with Ira Siff and Leesa Dahl.  Most recently, she made her debut with New York Opera Exchange as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata this past May, and traveled to Los Angeles to join the SongFest Professional Program this past June where she will be performed works by Cathy Berberian, Elliott Carter, Benjamin Britten, and Libby Larsen.  In her free time, she enjoys running, archery and various types of embroidery.  

Jessica Thompson

               Soprano

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