Dr. Ann Marie Daehn

Details

Education

• DMA, Voice Performance and Literature, Eastman School of Music
• MA, Voice Performance, UNC-Greensboro
• BA, Music Education, Miami University

Teaching

• MUS 153/253/353/453/753: Voice
• MUS 193/393/793: Opera

Professional experience

Mezzo-soprano and stage director Dr. Ann Marie Wilcox-Daehn thrives on a career that includes oratorio, opera, art song, and musical theater. A frequent oratorio soloist, she has soloed at Carnegie Hall in the Mozart Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, and Vivaldi’s Gloria and with the Springfield Symphony as the mezzo soloist for Beethoven 9 and Mahler 2. Internationally and domestically, she performs in solo and chamber recitals with traditional as well as more obscure repertoire. Of the over 50 roles to her credit, favorites include Carmen; Dorabella in Cosí fan Tutte; Isabella in The Italian Girl from Algiers; Angelina/Cinderella in La Cenerentola; Aldonza in Man of la Mancha; Petra in A Little Night Music; and she created the role of Rosemary for the world premiere of Libby Larsen’s jazz opera, Picnic. She was featured at the Springfield Regional Opera as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti and as La Musica, Euridice la Messaggera, and La speranza in L’Orfeo. Daehn can be heard on the Albany Record label as Adah in Naughty Marietta, Bertha in The Red Mill, singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” on Gold & Silver: Celebrating 25 Years of Ohio Light Opera. Her collaboration with pianist Dr. Elizabeth Avery has earned the pair the Ernst Bacon American Prize for their performance of songs by Sergius Kagen and additional recognition for their recordings of songs by Jake Heggie and Ruth Crawford Seeger. The team regularly tours with their Fête of the Feminine recital series of music by female composers and East Wing Song lecture recitals.

As director of the Missouri State University Opera Theatre, Daehn has staged and produced performances that span many style periods including full operas by Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Johann Strauss, Puccini, Menotti, Massenet, Humperdinck, and living composers including Trinkley, Kirchoff, Ching, and Conte. The ensemble performs for outreach events and concerts throughout Springfield as a presenting organization for the Kennedy Center’s Any Given Child program and has excelled on the national stage with multiple first places in the National Opera Association’s National Scenes Competition. Daehn also received recognition in the professional division of the Charles Nelson Reilly American Prize for her direction of Springfield Regional Opera’s La Serva Padrona.

Daehn serves as Central Region Governor for the National Opera Association and is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and AGMA.

Research and professional interests

Wilcox-Daehn has performed lecture recitals on the music of Sergius Kagen, written on the father daughter relationships in Verdi operas for the Opera Journal, has presented on art song by living composers appropriate for developing singers for NATS, and on creative ways to produce opera for NOA. Currently she is researching the teaching and career of mezzo soprano Jan de Gaetani and is the founder of East Wing Songs, a non-profit that commissions songs and presents lecture recitals about the first ladies of our nation.

Awards and honors

• 2022 National Opera Association Scenes Competition, National Finalist, Musical Theatre Division (Director)
• 2021 Faculty Research Grant: First Ladies in Song Project
• 2021 Charles Nelson Reilly American Prize in Directing, Professional Division, 2nd Place (SRO’s La Serva Padrona)
• 2021 Ernst Bacon American Prize – Soloist Division, National Finalist, Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Five Songs
• 2021 Ernst Bacon American Music – Composers, Honorable Mention, Carlisle Sharpe’s Of These Years I Sing
• 2020 Ernst Bacon American Prize, 3rd place (Songs of Jake Heggie)
• 2020 National Opera Association Scenes Competition, 2nd Place – Undergraduate Division (Director)
• 2020 International Travel Grant
• 2019 National Opera Association Scenes Competition, National Finalists – Graduate Division
• 2018 National Opera Association Scenes Competition, 1st Place – Collegiate, Music Theatre, Graduate (1st place Undergrad and Music Theatre, 2nd in Graduate)
• 2019 NOA Production Award, Honorable Mention, MSU Opera Theatre
• 2017 Ernst Bacon American Prize, 1st prize (Songs of Sergius Kagen)
• 2015 National Opera Association Scenes Competition, 2nd Place – Graduate Division
• 2014 National Opera Association Scenes Competition National Finalists – Musical Theatre Division
• 2014 Summer Faculty Fellowship: Jan de Gaetani
• 2013 COAL New Faculty Fellowship: Sergius Kagen