Jacquelyn Familant

Soprano Jacquelyn Familant has just been named winner of the 2010 Classical Singer Convention. Ms. Familant enjoys an international career that spans the genres of opera, oratorio and chamber music. The lyric soprano began her career with the Staatsoper Stuttgart performing the roles of Sandman and Dew Fairy in Haensel und Gretel, Aloysia in Masaniello furioso, Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, & Euridice in L'Orfeo. Other international opera credits include Eurydice in Orphée et Eurydice with the Festival Lyrique-en-Mer, Ilia in Idomeneo, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Modus Opera, and Blanche de la Force in Les Dialogues des Carmelites. Ms. Familant has won numerous awards and scholarships including a prize in the 2006 Charles A. Lynam Vocal Competition. This gifted young performer was also honored in Europe as a Star of Tomorrow by the ARTE Film and Broadcasting Network and featured in an international television portrait .

Equally at home on the recital stage, Jacquelyn Familant is known for her commitment to exploring and performing a vast array of concert repertoire. Ms. Familant has performed in concert with the American Modern Ensemble, the American Music Festival, Summer Stars of Ocean Grove, Forecast New Music, The Sapphire Ensemble, Borderless Song, Modus Opera, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Festival Lyrique-en-Mer, the Vermont Festival of the Arts, and the Chamber Music Society of Philadelphia. In the genre of oratorio, Ms. Familant has sung as the soprano soloist in Cameron-Wolfe’s A Measure of Love and Silence, Mozart’s Requiem, Coronation Mass, & Vesperae Solennes de Domenica, as well as Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Faure’s Requiem, and the Rutter Requiem. The soprano has a particular affinity for performing modern composition and has collaborated with such composers as Ned Rorem, Richard Cameron-Wolfe, Demetrius Spaneas, Michael Sydney Timpson, and James Barry. Devoted to the preservation and continuation of the classical tradition, Ms. Familant regularly performs contemporary repertoire and has had several pieces written for her including Timpson’s Four Poems of Dorothy Parker and Donald St. Pierre’s Songs on the Poems of e.e. cummings. Recently, Ms. Familant collaborated with composer/performer Demetrius Spaneas to create and perform Moonlight of Lost Dreams: a song cycle based on the soprano’s own poetry.

Upcoming engagements for the soprano include the Fall release of the commercial recording of Paul Salerni’s opera Tony Caruso’s Final Broadcast on the Naxos label in which she sang the role of The Intern. This September, Ms. Familant looks forward to creating the role of Millie in the world premiere of Salerni’s The Life and Loves of Joe Coogan with Lehigh Valley Opera.

Ms. Familant also enjoys success as a commercial model, actress and voice-over artist: she has appeared internationally in print, television, radio and film. A passionate advocate for music education, Ms. Familant also maintains a private voice studio and is a frequent visiting lecturer at select voice programs around the world.

Jacquelyn Familant was born in Newport News, Virginia and grew up in Clearwater, Florida. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.

Jacquelyn Familant photo