Stephanie Houtzeel, mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-Soprano Stephanie Houtzeel has won international acclaim for her appearances as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Paris-Bastille Opera, the New Israeli Opera and the Graz Opera. She was nominated one of the best up-and-coming singers by OPERNWELT Magazine for her Graz performance of the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos (under Philippe Jordan), and has gone on to sing this role in Zurich, Tel Aviv and Antwerp. She has sung all of the major Mozart roles for mezzo, with recent performances of Sesto in La clemenza di Tito and Idamante in Idomeneo (Graz and Washington, DC) receiving outstanding reviews. Regular appearances in the French lyric repertoire include Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Lisbon, Antwerp, St. Gallen and Linz), Marguérite in La Damnation de Faust (Antwerp) and Charlotte in Werther (Sassari, Italy).

Stephanie Houtzeel’s baroque performances are also wide-ranging. In 2007 she performed and recorded the title role in Lully’s Armide with Opera Lafayette. In 2008 she sang both Juno and Mystery in Purcell’s Fairy Queen in Rennes, France and made her debut with the Ludwigsburger Festspiele in an early opera program of Nicolai Jommelli.

Her upcoming engagements include Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) at the Opéra de Lyon and Dorabella (Così fan tutte) in Strasbourg. She also returns to Graz in 2009 to reprise Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. Ms. Houtzeel made her professional debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Hersfelder Festspiele, and subsequently joined the Linz and Graz Operas where she regularly performed the Mozart and Strauss repertoire, the Rossini heroines Rosina and Cenerentola, the Handel roles Ariodante, Galatea and Ino, Nicklausse, Prince Orlofsky, Diana in Orphée aux Enfers, the Verdi roles Meg Page and Maddalena, as well as World Premieres by Austrian composers Peter Androsch and Balduin Sulzer.

Ms. Houtzeel’s international concert appearances include Mahler's Third Symphony at both the Vienna Musikverein and Avery Fisher Hall, appearances with the Orchestra of La Monnaie, Brussels, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the International Bruckner Festival, the Collegium Vocale Gent, the New York Festival of Song, Musicians from Marlboro and Great Performers of Lincoln Center. She has collaborated with conductors Dennis Russell Davies, Philippe Jordan, Pinchas Steinberg, Jah Jah Ling, Phillippe Herreweghe, Eric Ericsson, Claus Peter Flor and Michael Hofstetter, to name a few. Her recording credits include the title roles in Lully’s Armide (Naxos) and von Suppé’s Fatinitza (a world-premiere recording on CPO) as well as a CD of Handel chamber music (Raumklang Label).

Stephanie Houtzeel was born in Kassel, Germany and grew up near Boston. She received her Masters of Music from the Juilliard School in 1996. She was the first recipient of Juilliard’s Vocal Arts Debut Award and a Laureate at the 1996 International Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition.

For further information, please see www.stephaniehoutzeel.com.

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