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Recent Awards 2018 Winner of The American Prize Chicago Oratorio Award 2014 - 3rd Place Winner of The American Prize - Schorr Memorial Award in Art Song 2013 Winner of The Hawaii Public Radio Art Song Contest 2012 Winner of The American Prize Chicago Opera Award 2011 Winner of The American Prize - Schorr Memorial Award in Art Song 2011 Winner of The Johnny Mercer Award 2011 Bronze Medal Winner The American Traditions Competition Full Biography
Christine Steyer, soprano, has distinguished herself as an artist of great versatility. In addition to being the recipient of national awards including the American Prize Chicago Oratorio and Opera Awards, and Johnny Mercer Award, Steyer has received acclaim for her portrayals of the title role in Madama Butterfly and Violetta in La Traviata. She has sung in over 40 productions at Lyric Opera of Chicago. A frequent recitalist, Steyer sang several concerts of Russian and American music with pianist Philip Morehead, concerts of Spanish music with guitarist Brandon Acker and French music with pianist Jean-Claude Orfali. Steyer seeks many innovative ways to keep classical vocal music relevant in today's world. As a proponent of new works, she collaborated with numerous poets and musicians to publish Six Songs for Soprano and is currently collaborating on a book of original cabaret songs. Since 2005, Steyer has brought classical music to 23,000 youth in underserved areas with Bellissima Opera Outreach, an organization that she founded. Additionally, Steyer is the President of the new arts alliance, Working in Concert as well as the Artistic Director of one of its initiatives: Bellissima Opera, — new operas (Tales of Transcendence Series) by composer David Shenton and Steyer (as librettist) exploring our shared humanity. The first of these operas, On Call: Covid-19 is set to premiere as a virtual opera in April 2021, and the second, Future Perfect, in June 2021in Chicago. In December 2019 Steyer was featured on WFMT’s program Music Notes: Music of Healing and Peace singing the aria “Red is a Trick” from Future Perfect, with the libretto inspired by her workshops with 1,300 Chicago area youth. Last year Steyer performed in the UK Tour of the musical Persuasion with Chamber Opera Chicago and in France with The Chicago Paris Cabaret Connexion singing at the Montpellier Opera House, Paris' Salle Olympe de Gouges and the Lapin Agile - Paris' oldest cabaret club. In February, she had concerts at Knox and Monmouth Colleges and at the Schubert Festival at Unity Temple where Steyer shared the stage with Lawrence Brownlee and members of the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestras. Upcoming virtual performances include an October recital at The 19th Century Club in Oak Park, in April 2021 singing the role of Health Care Worker 3 in the new opera On Call: Covid-19 and Steyer’s directorial debut in Future Perfect. Steyer teaches voice privately in Oak Park and is an adjunct faculty member at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. |
Recent Press Quotes
"In particular, Christine Steyer’s rendition of Cio-Cio San was notable for gorgeous, satisfying vocal production from top to bottom, consummate musicianship, and charming stage presence. However, for me, what made her performance completely convincing and satisfying was her ability to project an enormous range of emotions in her singing and acting with minimal theatricality. The Butterfly role is so well known there is an inherent danger that any interpretation will almost seem to be a cliché of others we have heard unless it obviously attempt to deviate from the norm. Steyer’s version did not need to resort to any manipulative ploys for our sympathy because her emotional presence came across as absolutely honest and heartfelt. From the first notes wafting from off stage at her first entrance, we sensed her deep understanding of Cio-Cio San’s innocence and loveliness, vulnerability and sadness, and believed her completely from that moment on. By the end of the opera, we shared her devastating pain as personally and directly as if she were someone we knew as intimately as family." -Stephen Thomas, Professor of Music www.loosefilter.com |
