Rachel Joselson
While still a student in voice performance, Rachel Joselson appeared with the Indianapolis and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras under the baton of Robert Shaw. After completing her master’s degree at Indiana University, she moved to Europe for private vocal study with Mario and Rina del Monaco in Italy. Her operatic career began in Darmstadt, Germany, where she sang roles such as Rosina, Dorabella, Cherubino, Adalgisa, and Idamante. She later transitioned to soprano repertoire at the Hamburg State Opera, performing Mimì, Micaëla, Mireille, Mélisande, Marjênka (The Bartered Bride), Donna Elvira, Leonore (Fidelio), and Eva (Die Meistersinger).
After returning to the U.S. in the late 1990s, Joselson was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera for Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. She has since performed with orchestras in Madison, Oshkosh, and Johnson City, and appeared with Utah Festival Opera and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for their International Sunday broadcast. Her recordings include Menotti’s Help! Help! The Globolinks!, The Songs of Arthur Honegger and Jacques Leguerney, Songs of the Holocaust, Ich denke dein: Songs and Chamber Works of Nikolai Medtner, and Je Donnerai Mes Jours: Songs of Gabriel Dupont.
She has presented lectures and master classes internationally, including in Leipzig, Halle, Italy’s Asolo Song Festival, and the National Music Conservatory in Puebla, Mexico. In the U.S., she has adjudicated for NATS competitions in Iowa and Illinois, presented at the Classical Singer Convention in Chicago, and performed at the CUNY Graduate Center, Middlebury College, Montclair State, and Lawrence University. In 2017, she sang at the United Nations’ annual commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Joselson’s work also includes musical theater, with performances as Desirée (A Little Night Music), Golde (Fiddler on the Roof), Glinda/Aunt Em (The Wizard of Oz), Mama Morton (Chicago), and Signora Naccarelli (The Light in the Piazza) with the American Gothic Performing Arts Festival.
She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University and has been on the voice faculty at the University of Iowa since 1997. She lives in Iowa City.
Recordings:
- Voice and opera
