Alyssa Anderson, mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano Alyssa Anderson's vocal repertoire spans the ages from Baroque masterpieces to contemporary experimental music, with a focus on American and twentieth-century artsong and chamber music.

A native of Falconer, NY, Alyssa received her BM in Vocal Performance summa cum laude from the State University of New York, College at Fredonia, and she completed her MM in Performance summa cum laude at the University of Minnesota. She was recently awarded the Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota for her thesis on the solo vocal music of American composer Henry Cowell and a recital performance of a number of his unpublished, and virtually unknown, songs for voice and piano.

While working towards her graduate degrees, Alyssa peformed numerous leading roles with the University of Minnesota's Opera Theater, including the Komponist in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Giulietta in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and Margaret Elliott in the Minnesota premiere of Eric Hermannson's Soul by Libby Larsen.

As a founding member of the Twin Cities based contemporary music ensemble RenegadeEnsemble, Alyssa has performed premieres of several new works for voice with the ensemble including Peter Billam's Tres Casidas del Divan del Tamarit, Ton Bruynel's Le Jardin, Zac Crockett's Dance 1, and Eric Schwartz's The Owl and the Pussycat.

Recent performances include the title role in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Gyorgy Ligeti's Sippal, dobbal, nadihegeduvel for mezzo-soprano and four percussionists. Alyssa has appeared as a soloist with the Minnesota Oratorio Society, the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Twin Cities Lyric Theater, the RenegadeEnsemble, the University of Minnesota's New Music Ensemble, the University of Minnesota's Bach Festival, the Jamestown Choral Society, the Fredonia College Choir, and Fredonia's Festival Chorus.

In 2004 and 2007, Alyssa won first place in the Minnesota District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; other awards include the Metropolitan Opera Nations Council Auditions Encouragement award, the McGough Opera Award, the Ted Mann Scholarship, and the David F. Evans Performance Award.

In 2010, Alyssa and guitarist Joseph Spoelstra formed a classical voice/guitar duo, The Dream Songs Project. They can be heard in a number of venues in Madison, WI, the Twin Cities, and a variety of other areas in the Upper Midwest. They are currently working on a recording of songs of Mauro Giuliani, which is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2011.

Alyssa currently resides in Minneapolis.