Stephanie Houtzeel

Stephanie Houtzeel was born in Kassel, Germany and grew up near Boston. She studied voice with Edward Zambara at New England Conservatory and at The Juilliard School, where she received her Masters of Music in 1996. She was the first recipient of Juilliard’s Vocal Arts Debut Award as well as a Laureate at the 1996 International Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition. Ms. Houtzeel made her professional opera debut as Dorabella in “Così fan tutte” at the Hersfelder Festspiele, Germany and subsequently joined the Linz and the Graz Operas, where she sang many Mozart and Strauss mezzo roles, the Rossini heroines Rosina and Cenerentola, the Handel roles Ariodante, Galatea and Ino, Nicklausse, Prince Orlofsky, Diana in “Orphée aux Enfers” as well as major roles in World Premieres by Austrian composers Peter Androsch and Balduin Sulzer.

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel has already been heard in leading opera houses throughout Europe, including Opéra de Paris, the Vlaamse Oper, Opéra de Lyon, Strasbourg, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, Tel Aviv, Graz, and Lincoln Center.

September 2010 Stephanie Houtzeel joined the Wiener Staatsoper, where her repertoire included amongst others Octavian, Komponist, Dorabella, Sesto and Varvara (Kat’a Kabanova).

Autumn 2011 she will make her debut at Semperoper, Dresden as Ottavia in Monteverdi’s “L’incoronazione di Poppea”.

Highlights of the recent seasons included her New York City Opera as Rosmira in Hanedle’s Partenope, Dorabella in David McVicar's Cosi production at Opéra national du Rhin Strasbourg, Orlofsky in “Die Fledermaus” with Opéra de Lyon, Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier” at Paris Opera (Bastille) and with the Graz Opera, Monteverdi’s Ottavia in “L’incoronazione di Poppea” with the Boston Early Music Festival, Maria Magdalene in Handel’s “La Resurrezione”.

In concert she has been heard with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (led by Karel Mark Chichon), with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Olari Elts) in “La damnation de Faust”, with Combattimento Consort Amsterdam in Handel arias’s, with the Brooklyn Symphony, with the Hannover Rundfunkorchester in Handel’s Dix Dominus as well as with the Symphonic Orchestra of La Monnaie, Brussels.