Dana Zenobi, soprano | Oliver Worthington, baritone

Soprano Baritone Duets by Historical Women Composers

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Graphic art that looks like woven fabric, including the silhouettes of two women in Victorian dress holding hands. One woman holds a quill and the other holds music. There are decorative trees and birds surrounding them.

Faith DeBow, piano


About the Performers

A native of Northport, NY, Dana Zenobi is an engaging performer, educator, and presenter. An active recitalist, Dr. Zenobi earned national recognition as an interpreter of art song by women composers when she was awarded an Honorable Mention for Exceptional Repertoire by The American Prize (2016). Her debut full-length recording, Joys Abiding: Soprano Baritone Duets by Historical Women Composers, with baritone Oliver Worthington and pianist Chuck Dillard, was recently released on the Navona label of Parma Records. An accompanying score anthology has also been published by Classical Vocal Reprints. Zenobi has appeared as concert soloist with ensembles including the Austin Civic Orchestra, the Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, the Austin Chamber Ensemble, and line upon line percussion ensemble. She has also performed with Viola by Choice chamber music ensemble, and is featured on their 2010 debut recording, Florilegium.

Zenobi joined the voice faculty of Butler University in 2018, after a decade of teaching at Southwestern University. She currently teaches voice, song literature, vocal pedagogy, vocal diction, and vocal repertoire courses. She also directs the Butler University Vocal Competition for high school singers. A grateful recipient of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Vocal Pedagogy Award (2020), she has presented workshops, lecture recitals and research posters at numerous conferences and festivals including the National and Texoma Regional NATS Conferences, the Voice Foundation’s Care of the Professional Voice Symposium, the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA), Bel Canto Boot Camp, the International Music by Women Festival, and the Associated Colleges of the South Gender Studies Conference. Her research interests include art song by women, aural modeling, acoustics of the singing voice, music performance anxiety and psychological flexibility, and financial mentorship for musicians.

On the opera stage, she was deemed "the chief vocal pleasure" of Lyric Opera Cleveland's The Pirates of Penzance, and named "a soprano to listen for" by the Cleveland Press. The Houston Chronicle praised her "emotionally intense and technically inspired singing" as Konstanze [Die Entfürung aus dem Serail]. She has garnered similar success in roles ranging from Mozart heroines to Puccini's Mimi and Verdi's Violetta Valery. Her portrayal of Adina [L'Elisir d'Amore] earned her an Austin Critic's Table Award Nomination. Dr. Zenobi's interest in contemporary music has lead to engagements with Austin Lyric Opera in the American premiere of Philip Glass' Waiting for the Barbarians, and the first production of Mark Adamo's Little Women directed by the composer (Lyric Opera Cleveland). She collaborated with composer H. Leslie Adams in a concert performance of his song literature, and premiered "Love While You May," a song cycle by Ashley H. Craft with trombonist Eileen Meyer Russell in 2014.

On the competition circuit, she won the voice division of the Entergy Young Texas Artists Music Competition and second place in the National Federation of Music Clubs' Biennial Young Artist Competition. She has been a finalist for The American Prize several times, and was selected as a semi-finalist or finalist in numerous competitions, including the Center for Contemporary Opera, Opera Birmingham and the Austin Wednesday Morning Music Club Fielder Career Development Grant Competition.

Dr. Zenobi earned her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Voice Performance with specialization in Voice Pedagogy at UT Austin under the direction of Darlene Wiley. She holds a Master's Degree in Opera Performance from The University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with Martha Deatherage, and a Bachelor's Degree in Music and Women’s Studies from Duke University, where she was a student of Susan Dunn. Her major teachers and mentors include Gioacchino Li Vigni, Irene Gubrud, Juli Wood, David Heid and Hank Hammett. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband and three young children.


Oliver Worthington, baritone, has performed extensively as an opera singer, oratorio soloist and recitalist. He has appeared with regional opera companies like Indianapolis Opera, South Texas Lyric Opera, San Antonio Opera, San Antonio Symphony, Hill Country Lyric, Austin Opera and Lone Star Lyric in diverse roles from Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus to Mamma Agatha in Viva la Mamma. Other roles include Count Gil in Il Segreto di Susanna, Bruschino in Il Signor Bruschino, Dr. Greg in Gallantry, The Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers, Le Podestat in Le Docteur Miracle and others in more traditional repertoire. He recently performed the roles of Raphael and Adam in Haydn’s The Creation with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in the Hilbert Circle Theater in downtown Indianapolis. He is also active as a recitalist, his favorite genre, where he champions the works of living composers often premiering new works.  At Butler Dr. Worthington is the Voice Area Coordinator and the Producing Director of Butler Opera Theatre where he works to help students learn the skills necessary to become convincing singing actors. Dr. Worthington maintains a full schedule as an educator and performer and serves as the President of The Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation (www.jensenfoundation.org), a non-profit dedicated to supporting the arts with cash prizes to young opera singers.


 

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