Deborah Mayer

Biography

Deborah Mayer had taught voice at the University of Notre Dame since 2006. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Walküre in Robert Lepage’s landmark production of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle which also marked her Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast debut. Other operatic highlights include singing the role of Gerhilde in Die Walküre with the Boston Symphony, (Tanglewood Music Festival) Brünnhilde in Siegfried (Toledo Symphony), Ada in Die Feen (Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Landestheater Salzburg, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg), Abigaile in Nabucco and Elettra in Idomeneo (Mainfranken Theater Würzburg), Leonora in Il Trovatore (Baltimore Opera, Opera Syracuse), the title role in Tosca (Opera Theater of Connecticut, Tampa Opera), the title role in Aida (Opera Roanoke, Eugene Opera), and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites (Eugene Opera).

Ms. Mayer recently served as Visiting Professor of Voice at Purdue University Fort Wayne School of Music, where she was the director of the Opera Ensemble, and directed their production of Hansel and Gretel, and was Lecturer in Voice at Central Michigan University. She has been on faculty at Goshen College, Southwestern Michigan College, The Raclin School of the Arts at Indiana University South Bend, and the University of Notre Dame, where she has worked extensively with the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television and Theater as vocal coach for the musical Spring Awakenings, Cyrano, A Dawn’s Early Light, and was the Vocal Director for A Chorus Line. She also served as vocal coach for Candide, Sweeney Todd, and The Magic Flute for Opera Notre Dame.

She has conducted master classes for the Berlin Opera Academy, Saluzzo Opera Academy, Eugene Opera’s Opera Academy, Opera Steamboat, New World School of the Arts, and served on auditions committees for Classical Singer Music Vocal Competition, Kalamazoo Bach Festival’s Young Vocalists Competition, and the Ezio Pinza Foundation for American Singers of Opera. Her students have appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, in national tours of The Lion King, Beautiful – The Carol King Musical, and In the Heights, and have been finalists in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Awards. Her singer/songwriter student’s music has been featured on Showtime, Lifetime, Disney Plus, Hippies and Cowboys Podcast, and Old Soul Radio Show.

While she still enjoys an active performing career as an operatic soprano, she has also trained in Contemporary Commercial Music and has completed certification in all three levels of Somatic Voicework ™ the LoVetri Method and enjoys teaching many musical styles. Her earliest musical training began at Indiana University, Bloomington, with the legendary soprano, Virginia Zeani, and her husband, the world-renowned Basso, Nicola Rossi Lemeni.

Ms. Mayer can be heard singing excerpts from Cavalleria Rusticana in the 2016 film Through the Looking Glass, available of Netflix.