bio & credentials

In Memory of

Award winning lyric-coloratura soprano Marianne Weltmann is a direct vocal descendant of the great master of Bel Canto Singing, Giovanni Battista Lamperti. After earning her B.S. and M.S degree in Voice and Opera at the Juilliard School of Music, Ms. Weltmann apprenticed herself for five years to the Verdi Baritone Rocco Pandiscio, who studied with a student of Lamperti in Naples, Italy.

In addition to her own development, Ms. Weltmann witnessed thousands of lessons at the Pandiscio Studio of every voice type, learning specifics of technique, the registers and the repertoire of each. She met the leading baritones and basses of the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway, who would come to have Rocco "approximate their vocal cords" after they had sung too much, too hard, or repertoire too dramatic for their voice-type.

Born in Germany, Ms. Weltmann is a linguist, who earned a translator/interpreter credential in Humanities and Economics in Munich, where she also worked as a translator/interpreter, dubbed movies and led city tours. She has translated many operas and film scripts into English. Today she heads Chamber Opera Northwest, a touring company which performs her English-language versions, in an effort to acquaint audiences with opera and to employ Northwest singers. She is mad about poetry and is currently writing a memoir about the adoption of a teen from the foster care system.

Ms Weltmann has won major competitions, such as the Joy in Singing N.Y. Recital Debut, D.A.A.D. Award, the Frank Huntington Beebe Award (which underwrote two years of career development abroad), the Fromm Fellowship in Contemporary Music at Tanglewood under Aaron Copland and Wolfgang Fortner.

Ms. Weltmann used the Beebe Grant to complete her studies with Lina Pagliughi, leading coloratura soprano of La Scala, Milan. From the divine Signora Lina she learned specific solutions of breathing, phrasing, style and tradition in all the major roles of the coloratura and light lyric soprano, as well as the art of floating high tones. She was then hired by Gian-Carlo Menotti to debut as Sophie in "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Festival di Due Mondi in Spoleto, and sang for 8 seasons in Wuppertal, Essen, Augsburg, Heidelberg, Braunschweig, Duesseldorf-Duisberg, where her roles included Gilda, Norina, Adina, Susanna, Queen of Night, Constanza, Lucia, Sophie, Euridice, Oscar, Micaela, Violetta, and several operas by 20th century composers.

Ms. Weltmann is also a Washington State licensed massage therapist since 1984, licensed as a small animal massage therapist in 2006, and a confirmed aeroboholic and free-weight enthusiast. She has done many years of yoga, but Pilates is her preference for strengthening the "core," lower abdominals and back muscles.

EDUCATION: Juilliard School of Music, B.S. and M.S. in Voice and Opera. Private study with Rocco Pandiscio (whose teacher studied with Lamperti); Lina Pagliughi (leading coloratura of La Scala) on a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant.
AWARDS: Scholarship - Juilliard School of Music, Fullbright and Rockefeller Grants, Fromm Fellowship in Contemporary Music at Tanglewood, Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for career development in Europe, Joy in Singing New Your Recital Debut Award, "Best of Seattle" - Best Singing Teacher in Seattle - (Seattle Weekly), Letizia Buitoni Award of Liederkranz Foundation Competition (Carnegie Hall debut, D.A.A.D. Award
PERFORMANCE: NY Town Hall Concert Debut (awarded by The Joy in Singing); Opera debut as Sophie in "Der Rosenkavalier" at Festival di Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy; German opera houses including Dusseldorf, Augsburg, Essen, Wuppertal, Braunschweig, Heidelberg United States Information Service (USIS) tours, Italy, concerts in Rome, Milan, Sondrio, London N.Y., Concerto Vocale-Sondrio BBC, Radio Hilversum, Seattle Symphony, Port Angeles Symphony, Bellevue Philharmonic, Orchestra Seattle. Benefit concerts for Crisis Clinic of Seattle, U.W. Breast Cancer Research (Benaroya Recital Hall, Seattle). Soprano in operatic quartet "Classic Popera"
TEACHING: University of Washington, Western Washington University, University of Puget Sound, Vancouver Academy of Music, AIMS Institute - Graz, Austria, Private studio - Seattle, Washington
DIRECTING and TRANSLATING: Director of Chamber Opera Northwest (a touring chamber opera company). Studied directing at University of Washington School of Drama with Burke Walker (Empty Space founder). Translator of film, opera and operetta, literature, certified translation-Munich Olympics
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS: NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) - national and Puget Sound Chapters; MTNA (Music Teachers National Associations - national and SMTA (Seattle Chapter); Ladies Musical Club, NOA (National Opera Association), Opera America, Juilliard Alumni Association, American Massage Therapy Association.

"A gorgeous voice belonging to an exceptionally talented young musician was heard, when soprano Marianne Weltmann made her solo debut as winner of the Town Hall Award, given anually to a member of the New York University seminar, "The Joy in Singing."

-New York Herald Tribune