photo credit Brian McConkey
Soprano Carla Janzen is showing promise as an up and coming lyric soprano in opera, concert and recital performances throughout the United States. She has appeared several times with the Aspen Opera Theater Center, most recently as the Female Chorus in Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with Jane Glover conducting. According to Opera News, Ms. Janzen “…invested [her] words with weight and feeling and effectively drew in the listener…with her measured, affecting style.” Her love of contemporary music led to her to a performance in a workshop of a new opera, California Fictions by, Mason Bates, where she originated the role of Victoria. Another recent highlight was her appearance alongside acclaimed author and radio personality Garrison Keillor as “The Opera Singer” in the renowned Steppenwolf Theatre’s reading of Studs Turkel’s book Will the Circle Be Unbroken in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
A graduate of Chicago Opera Theatre’s Young Artist Program, Ms. Janzen’s repertoire includes Cio Cio San in Madame Butterfly, Mimi in La Boheme, Donna Giacinta in Mozart’s La Finta Semplice, and the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Incornazione di Poppea. A signature role is Fiordiligi, which she has performed with Intermezzo Young Artists Development Program and Opera in the Ozarks, and covered at Chicago Opera Theatre. While at COT, she also covered the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia.
Ms. Janzen has performed extensively throughout the Chicago area including performances with the Evanston Symphony, Skokie Valley Symphony, Chicago Folks Operetta, New Millennium Orchestra, Chicago’s Access Contemporary Music, Governor's State University, and also as a featured soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the beautiful Serenade to Music by Ralph Vaughn-Williams. Ms. Janzen has also been seen as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah and the Faure Requiem as well as in concerts of opera and operetta excerpts throughout the US and Germany. In 2007 she was chosen as a winner of the Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, and was featured in concert with Maestro Lawrence Renes and the Aspen Sinfonia. She is also a two time central regional finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In addition to her solo work, Ms. Janzen sings in the choruses of Lyric Opera Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Grant Park Symphony.
A native of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Ms. Janzen earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She is a student of master teacher W. Stephen Smith.