University of Southern Maine School of Music                           

 
Ellen Chickering, soprano

Photo: Ellen Chickering
  ELLEN CHICKERING, Soprano, sings extensively in the New England area. In the summer of 2004, she will sang  with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra  in Beethoven's Ninth symphony on the Boston Commons. In 2003, she sang with the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston in performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Boston's Symphony Hall. In 2002 she added the roles of: Tosca in Tosca and Minnie in La Fanciulla del West to her repertory, as well as the soprano solo in Vaughn Williams' Sea Symphony with the Portland (Me. ) Symphony.  She made her Kennedy Center debut singing the soprano solo in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Washington Chorus, and  traveled to Kiev, Ukraine to sing a performance of  Samuel Barber's Vanessa and make a recording for Naxos with the National Philharmonic of the Ukraine.  She made her Carnegie Hall debut in January 2000 singing the Soprano I part in  Mahler's Symphony #8 with  the Boston Philharmonic to rave reviews.  Ms. Chickering has sung the lead roles in Barber's Vanessa , Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, Aida, La Forza del Destino, and Il Trovatore, Strauss' Arabella, Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia and Elizabetta in Maria Stuarda, Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus. She has sung with the Minnesota Opera, Boston Academy of Music, Santa Fe Opera, Merrimack Lyric Opera, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Commonwealth Opera  and the Connecticut Concert Opera.

Ms. Chickering has made four concert tours to Japan singing Handels' Messiah and Beethoven's Symphony #9 with the Shinsei Nihon Symphony and the Telemann Chamber Orchestra among others..  In addition, her concert repertoire includes Verdi's Requiem,  Britten's War Requiem, and Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder with such orchestras as the Minnesota Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Colorado Springs Symphony, the Civic Symphony of Boston and the Boston Philharmonic.  Ms Chickering is Associate Professor of Voice at the School of Music, University of Southern Maine.



REVIEWS:

"Ellen Chickering did nothing that could be considered anything less than sensational.  It is an enormous voice, but perfectly placed so that it has surprising flexibility and never seems out of control."
The Boston

"Ellen Chickering, a soprano with an unlimited arsenal of bull's-eye high C's (with a shimmering quiet one in reserve for the last)."
The Wall Street Journal

"Ellen Chickering's  full-bodied Leonora had passion, dignity and an excellent sense of line and dynamics; by her last aria she had convinced many a listener she was a real Verdi soprano."                 
Opera News

"one artist, Ellen Chickering, captured the essence of what made Callas' singing so special. And she did that in delivering the most famous of Bellini's arias, Casta Diva from Norma, as if no one had ever sung it before.        
The Boston Globe

"Chickering was in utterly glorious voice. She sang the heroic, high note-dotted role with fearless freedom and uncanny accuracy."        
The Boston Herald

"Soprano Ellen Chickering was sensational. Hers is a huge voice of pinpoint precision."
The Denver Post

"As Amelia, Chickering responded with power, conviction, breadth of phrasing technical sophistication, and more than a hint of Prima Donna grandeur. Chickering nailed all the tricky passages, attacking soft high notes with purity and poise, and navigating the cadenzas with skill.   
The Boston Globe.
 

Contact:
Ellen Chickering
University of Southern Maine School of Music
37 College Avenue
Gorham, ME 04038
207-780-5265
ellenc@usm.maine.edu

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