Opera Fächer or Voice Types: Social Implications for Teaching and Performing in the World of Opera

HOPE KOEHLER has appeared with many opera companies and orchestras, such as Nashville Opera, Tennessee Opera Theatre, Blair Opera Theatre, MTSU Opera Theatre, University Opera Theatre in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Lexington Symphony Orchestra, and Itasca Symphony Orchestra. At the Northland Opera Theatre in Duluth, Minnesota, she has appeared in the title roles of Tosca, Carmen, Fidelio, and Madama Butterfly. In addition, she has appeared in La Bohème (Musetta), Der Freischütz (Agathe), The Tales of Hoffmann (Giulietta), and others. Hope is a regular performer and featured soloist with the American Spiritual Ensemble, a group that performs all over the world, and whose mission is to keep the American Negro Spiritual alive and vibrant. She has also been on the faculty of the prestigious Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts for five years. In summer of 2004, she served on the faculty of the Beijing Music Festival and School in Beijing, China. Hope received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Performance and Music Education at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her Doctor of Musical Arts degree was completed at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, where she studied with tenor Everett McCorvey and soprano Gail Robinson. Currently, she teaches voice and opera at the University of Minnesota Morris.