biography
Ms. Worrell as Masha in Four Sisters with Boston Opera Collaborative.
Hailed for performing with “a gorgeous and flexible soprano that revealed a large measure of dramatic intelligence and musical acumen,” soprano Bethany Worrell has performed in Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Salzburg, Austria, and Florence, Italy. Most recently, Bethany made her Boston Symphony Orchestra soloist debut as the High Priestess in Aida under the baton of Maestro Andris Nelsons. Bethany was a Young Artist with the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh during their 2014 season, performing the role of Echo in Ariadne on Naxos, as well as Wendy in the world-premiere performance of Roger Zahab’s Happy Hour. In the Boston area, Bethany has been seen as Clorinda (La Cenerentola) and Despina (Cosi fan tutte) with the North End Music and Performing Arts Center (NEMPAC) in Faneuil Hall, Masha (Four Sisters) with Boston Opera Collaborative, Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro) with Opera del West, Micaëla (Carmen) with Longwood Opera, the Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel) with MetroWest Opera, and Pamina (The Magic Flute) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) with New England Conservatory Opera.
As a concert soloist, Bethany has frequently collaborated with the Metropolitan Chorale (Steven Sametz’s A Child’s Requiem, Bach’s Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, Handel’s Dixit Dominus) and The Bostonians Concert Ensemble (Can’t Help Singing and Bernstein! An (ALMOST) 100th Birthday Bash). She has also appeared with the Heritage Chorale (Mendelssohn’s Elijah), Atlantic Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), and Boston Modern Orchestra Project (Hodges’ Full Fathom Five).
Ms. Worrell as Zerlina in Don Giovanni with baritone Jean Bernard Cerin.
Bethany has a great enthusiasm for art song performance and frequently gives salon-style house concerts in addition to performing traditional recitals. She has been a featured recitalist for the West Tisbury Library on Martha’s Vineyard, Freeport Memorial Library Concert Series on Long Island, Brookline Library Music Association Concert Series, and Beethoven Society of Melrose Concert Series. She also was a performer in the Boston Art Song Society’s Inaugural 2015 Concert Season. In 2012, she won the Schloss Mirabell Competition at the University of Miami Frost School of Music Salzburg Summer Program, which granted her the opportunity to give a recital in the famed Schloss Mirabell Marble Hall where W.A. Mozart once performed. In the 2012 Boston NATS Competition, Bethany not only took top prize in her division, but also won The Leslie Holmes Prize for French Art Song, The Richard Bergmann Memorial Prize for Lieder, and The University of Miami Frost School of Music Salzburg Summer Program Scholarship. Bethany was a member of the SongFest Professional Studies Program at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA during the summer of 2011, where she sang in masterclasses given by renowned faculty Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, and Jake Heggie. She was also a soloist in the March 2011 Liederabend Concert Series at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. As the recipient of the 2008-2009 Amelia Guthrie Promising Singer of Merit Award, she was a featured recitalist as part of the Rockford, IL Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center’s concert series in 2009.
As a young champion of New Music, Bethany has given world premiere performances of orchestral, chamber works, and song cycles in Massachusetts and Illinois. Most recently, Bethany gave the world premiere performance of Thomas Oboe Lee’s H.D., a song cycle written for her specifically. She has also given the world premiere of Oboe Lee’s Gaspara Stampa, a song cycle for soprano and piano. She can also be heard on the official recording of both H.D. and Gaspara Stampa, available for purchase on ITunes. Bethany also worked with Maestro Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project to give the orchestral world premiere of Sojourner Hodges’ Full Fathom Five in Boston’s Jordan Hall. Additionally, she has performed works for soprano and wind ensemble in both Boston’s Jordan Hall and Chicago’s Symphony Hall. Her performance of James Mobberley’s Words of Love can be heard on the Western Illinois University Wind Ensemble’s recording by the same name.
Ms. Worrell performs with pianist Stephanie Mao at the inaugural performance of the Boston Art Song Society.
Bethany is currently a DMA pre-candidate in Voice Performance at the University of Michigan and anticipates graduating with her doctorate in 2023. She was awarded the Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance with academic honors from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. Her extended vocal studies include singing as a Young Artist with the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, studying at the University of Miami Frost School of Music Salzburg Summer Program in Salzburg, Austria; attending the Westminster Choir College Florence Voice Seminar in Florence, Italy; and singing in the Professional Studies Program at SongFest in Malibu, CA.