Biography

Mezzo-soprano Cynthia Munzer has sung over twenty roles in 223 performances with the Metropolitan Opera, both in New York at the Lincoln Center and on tour in the United States and Japan. Audiences across America have come to know her through the weekly Metropolitan Opera Saturday Broadcasts and over 20 Met Opera recordings with Luciano Pavarotti, Sherill Milnes, Placido Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Monserrat Caballé, Alfredo Kraus, Franco Corelli, Birgit Nilsson and Renata Scotto.

Broadcast performances have included the Metropolitan Opera Premiere of Alban Berg's Lulu, new productions of Bellini's I Puritani and Verdi's I Vespri Siciliani, and revivals of Strauss' Salome and Ariadne auf Naxos, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Faust, and Wagner's Die Walküre.

Ms. Munzer has garnered rave reviews as a leading guest artist with over ninety other opera companies and major symphony orchestras. The Dallas Opera, New York City Opera, Washington Opera, L'Opéra de Montréal, Houston Grand Opera, and Florentine Opera have presented Ms. Munzer in diverse roles such as Carmen, Cenerentola, Azucena, Amneris, Dame Quickly, Octavian, Olga, Maddalena, Augusta, and Herodias. The Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, American Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic are among the forty major symphony orchestras with which she has appeared as guest soloist.

Critically acclaimed concert tours with International Artists Inc. to Southeast Asia have resulted in re-engagements with the company in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Manila, Jakarta, Penang, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

She has been hailed in reviews for opera and oratorio performances at the renowned Wolftrap Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Brattleboro Music Festival and the New York Mozart Bicentennial Celebration. Other highlights of Ms. Munzer's career include Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts, vocal concerts at the United Nations, the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's Mass, performances with such masters as Aaron Copland, Leopold Stokowski, James Levine and Zubin Mehta, and a special 9/11 Memorial Tribute CD with other Metropolitan Opera artists.

Ms. Munzer is the recipient of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Shared First-Second Place Award on the Met state in New York City. Other awards include the Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Award, Gramma Fisher Foundation Award, Goeran Gentele Award, a Sullivan Foundation Award and Geraldine Farrar Award. She has received keys to the city of Dallas, Texas, and Binghamton, New York, in honor of her artistry.

Born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, Ms. Munzer is a graduate of the University of Kansas. She continued her postgraduate studies with Roy Henderson of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and with former Metropolitan Opera Mezzo Herta Glaz at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Currently an Associate Professor at the Flora L. Thornton School of Music, the University of Southern California, Ms. Munzer has taught at the Accademia Italiana di Canto in Tuscany, Italy, directed the International Vocal Institute in Hvar, Croatia, under the auspices of the International Music School, "Upbeat," and co-directed the Pacific Vocal Institute ("PVI") under the auspices of the Bard To Broadway Theatre, Inc. on Vancouver Island, BC. Now a guest artist at the PVI, she is also a master teacher at the International Lyric Academy in Rome and Viterbo, Italy, part of the Tuscia Opera Festival. Her students have been winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, among other competitions, and have appeared in several renowned young artist programs: The Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Young Artist Program, Chautauqua Opera, Virginia Opera, and San Diego Opera. Other students have made solo debuts with the Berlin Opera, New York City Opera and the Royal Opera House in London.

Sought after as a master clinician Miss Munzer has within the last six years presented master classes for The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Master Class Series in Tucson, AZ, Salt Lake City, UT, St. Paul, MN, Seattle, WA, as well as the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Series in New York City, the Manhattan School of Music (NYC), The Schubert Club Song Festival in Minneapolis/St. Paul, the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program, NY and Los Angeles and the Spotlight Awards Master Class at The Dorothy Chandler, LA 2009.

She has joined baritone Sherrill Milnes in presenting celebrity master classes at the Classical Singer Magazine Convention in New York. Master classes at well known universities include Notre Dame University, Indiana University, Brown University, State University of New York, Kent State University, and UCLA. Ms. Munzer has expanded her master classes to several countries and cities: Graz, Austria, Taipei, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, China, Paris France, Hvar, Croatia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Manila, Philippines, Vancouver Island, BC, Monte Carlo and Viterbo, Italy, Guadalajara, Mexico and soon, Australia.

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