Alicia Berneche (born January 1, 1971) is an American

lyric coloratura soprano A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs, leaps and trills. The term '' coloratura'' refers to the elaborate ornamentation of a melody, which is a typical component o ...

who has sung leading roles in

operas Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

throughout the United States. Berneche was born in

Kokomo, Indiana Kokomo ( ) is a city in Indiana and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard County, the Kokomo-Peru CSA, which includ ...

and went to

Kokomo High School Kokomo High School (merged with Haworth High School in 1984) is a four-year public high school in Kokomo, Indiana, USA. The school is the only high school in the Kokomo School Corporation. History The earliest Kokomo High School found in rec ...

where she played violin and starred in school plays. Intending to major in Acting and Poetry Composition in college, a last-minute decision to take voice lessons changed her major mid-year to singing. She studied voice with Vergene Miller, theatre, and poetry at

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the G ...

(1989–1993) and was the only voice major in her class. She then became the inaugural candidate for the Graduate Performance Diploma at the

Peabody Institute The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

(1993–1995), mentored by the late John Lehmeyer. She directly performed at Ohio Light Opera. She continued her professional training apprenticing at the Orlando Opera (1995), the joining the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists (1996–1998) in Chicago. She performed frequently at

Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...

, culminating in her popular and critical success as Daisy Buchanan in the second performance of John Harbison's ''The Great Gatsby'' after Dawn Upshaw bowed out of the production. She subsequently performed in the world premiere of ''Galileo Galilei'' by Philip Glass and Mary Zimmerman at the

Goodman Theatre Goodman Theatre is a professional theater company located in Chicago's Loop. A major part of the Chicago theatre scene, it is the city's oldest currently active nonprofit theater organization. Part of its present theater complex occupies the lan ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Berneche specializes in new music, performing and premiering works by Schulamit Ran,

Aaron Jay Kernis Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as Direct ...

John Harbison John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harb ...

Hugo Weisgall Hugo David Weisgall (October 13, 1912 – March 11, 1997) was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions. He was born in Ivančice, Moravia (then part of Austria-Hungary, later in his childhood ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

, Mathew Rosenblum, Lita Grier (b.1937), Robert Kritz, Luciano Berio, Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc, Drew Hemenger,

Kirke Mechem Kirke Mechem (born August 16, 1925) is an American composer. His first opera, ''Tartuffe (Mechem), Tartuffe'', with over 400 performances in seven countries, has become one of the most popular operas written by an American. He has composed more th ...

, Richard Wargo, Michale John LaChiusa,

Ricky Ian Gordon Ricky Ian Gordon (born May 15, 1956) is an American composer of art song, opera and musical theatre. Life Gordon was born in Oceanside, New York. He was raised by his mother, Eve, and father, Sam, and he grew up on Long Island with his three sist ...

Marc Blitzstein Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Wo ...

, Robert Ward, Arenski, Szymanowski, Arnold Schoenberg, and Jacob Druckman. Alicia Berneche has sung in houses all over the United States, including Austin Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Pacific, Virginia Opera, Orlando Opera, Skylight Opera, Sarasota Opera, and has been on the roster of the New York

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

References

* Allan Kozinn
Review of ''Galileo Galilei'', Brooklyn Academy of Music
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 3, 2002. Retrieved 13 June 2008. * Geoff Brown
Review of ''Galileo Galilei'', The Barbican, London
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', November 4, 2002. Retrieved 13 June 2008. * Lawrence A. Johnson
Review of ''The Great Gatsby'', Lyric Opera of Chicago
''

Opera News ''Opera News'' is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support ...

'', February 2001. Retrieved 13 June 2008.

External links

Alicia Berneche's website

Lyric Opera Center for America Artists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berneche, Alicia Living people 1971 births People from Kokomo, Indiana Peabody Institute alumni DePauw University alumni American operatic sopranos 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers Singers from Indiana Classical musicians from Indiana