Graduate Student Recital: Naomi Merer, soprano

Graduate vocalist Naomi Merer (soprano) will present a DMA recital on Saturday, October 14, 2017 at 2 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall with pianist Asher Severini. The program will feature works by Giovanni Paisiello, W.A. Mozart, Manuel de Falla, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Libby Larsen. Admission is free.

American soprano Naomi Merer is excited to perform Susanna in the University of California, Santa Barbara’s production of Le nozze di Figaro in February 2018. Also this season, she will be singing in the choruses of Mozart’s Requiem with the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra and Massenet’s Manon with Opera Santa Barbara. Ms. Merer has performed several chorus roles with Opera Santa Barbara, including Lolette in La rondine, a Hen in The Cunning Little Vixen, Suor Osmina in Suor Angelica, as well as ensemble in Carmen and Don Giovanni. She also sang Mercédès in Carmen and Alto Chorus in The Diary of One Who Disappeared by Janáček in Opera Santa Barbara’s outreach concerts.

Ms. Merer’s accolades include winning second place in the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation competition (2017) and singing in a master class with Renée Fleming at the Lobero Theater (2016). Her previous operatic roles include Youth in Thomas Cipullo’s After Life (UCSB & National Opera Association), Célie in Thomas Pasatieri’s Signor Deluso (UCSB), Papagena in Die Zauberflöte (Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival), and Madame Herz in The Impresario (Northwestern University). A versatile artist, Ms. Merer also starred in several of Northwestern’s musical theatre productions, portraying Lucy and the Street Singer in The Threepenny Opera and Linda in The Wedding Singer. Ms. Merer has also attended several young artist programs, such as AIMS in Graz, Austria, where she sang on a variety of concerts, including operetta concerts with the AIMS Festival Orchestra. She is currently an MM/DMA candidate in voice performance at UCSB, where she studies with Dr. Linda Di Fiore on a full tuition scholarship with a teaching assistantship stipend. While at UCSB, Ms. Merer has maintained a voice studio where she teaches individual voice lessons to non-majors, gives small master classes, and coaches diction.

Photo by Zach Mendez