Anne Christopherson

Biography

Lyric coloratura soprano, Anne Christopherson enjoys a varied and rewarding career as a performer and teacher. Her sensitive musicianship and insight reveals itself in the genres of art song, cabaret, opera, operetta, musical theatre and oratorio. 

Her “dazzlingly supple voice” has been acclaimed in such roles as Cunégonde in Candide, Mary Warren in The Crucible, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Nanetta in Falstaff, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Other performances include engagements with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, New York Lyric Opera Theatre, the Boulder Philharmonic, the Boulder Chorale, the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra, the Idaho Falls Opera Theatre, the Crimson Creek Players, the Grand Forks Master Chorale and is a regular soloist with the Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Christopherson debuted at Alice Tully Hall, as soprano soloist with the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra as part of the Mozart Bicentennial Celebration at Lincoln Center. As a cabaret artist, she has been a special guest for the “After Party’s Tribute to Sandi Patty” at the Laurie Beechman Theatre and “Bound for Broadway” at The Duplex in New York City. Cabaret Scenes magazine lauded her “well-honed ability to convey emotion, tenderness, and poignancy…” in her one-woman show, “I Hear Music,” which premiered at the Don’t Tell Mama cabaret in NYC, followed by other performances at The Duplex and various venues in Massachusetts and North Dakota.

Anne has sung the world premieres of Oddly Beautiful and Three Songs to Texts by Terry Jacobson by North Dakota composer, Michael Wittgraf, and In the beginning, mountains, by Canadian composer, Diana McIntyre. She also performed the France premiere of Christopher Berg’s Four Songs on Poems by Vladimir Nabokov at L’Atelier de la Main d’Or with pianist and UND alumna, Mary Dibbern.

Dr. Christopherson received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Colorado-Boulder where she studied with noted pedagogue, Dr. Barbara Doscher, and noted collaborative pianists, Robert Spillman and Richard Boldrey. Her Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance was awarded by The Ohio State University. Additional training includes the Academy of Art Song at the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts in Banff, Alberta, Canada, under the direction of Martin Isepp and the I Solisti ensemble for the Opera Theatre of Lucca sponsored by the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music, under the direction of Lorenzo Malfatti. Anne is a top prizewinner of the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, a Metropolitan Opera Competition Regional Finalist, and a finalist in the Jenny Lind Competition.

She serves as Coordinator of Applied Voice Studies and Associate Professor of Voice at the University of North Dakota teaching Applied Voice, Lyric Diction, Opera Workshop, Song Literature and Vocal Pedagogy. Her students are active performers in North and South America including non-Equity Broadway tours (Cats) and on Broadway (Phantom of the Opera), Amici Opera, Festival di Musica Antigua (Paraguay), Regina Opera, Harlem Opera Theatre, Musica Figurata (Brazil), New York Lyric Opera Theatre, New York Summer Opera Scenes, Oberlin Baroque Institute, the International Convention of Arts and Humanities, the Black Hills Opera Institute, the Firehall Theatre, Frostfire Productions, the Greater Grand Forks Symphony, the Grand Forks Master Chorale, as well as the UND Departments of Music and Theatre. They have also been winners of the North Dakota NATS Student Auditions.

Anne has been an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). She has served two terms as North Dakota District Governor, North Central Regional Governor, Vice-President of Membership, and served on its National Board of Directors for eight years. She currently serves as Chapter President for the North Dakota chapter of NATS (NDNATS). She is also the faculty advisor for UND-SNATS, the only student chapter of NATS in North Dakota.

An Associate Professor of Voice, Dr. Christopherson, has taught Applied Voice, Diction for Singers, Opera Workshop, Vocal Literature and Vocal Pedagogy. She currently serves as the department’s Voice Area Coordinator and is the faculty advisor for SNATS. She has also been musical director for the UND Department of Theatre’s productions of A Chorus Line; A Little Night Music; My Generation; Quilters; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; South Pacific, Urinetown and The Wizard of Oz.