BIO

SHORT BIO

Diane McNaron has appeared in opera, recital, oratorio and cabaret throughout the US and in Germany, Austria, Italy and Australia. Winner of several vocal awards including the Florida Operatic Voice Competition and the Regional Metropolitan Opera Awards, she earned a Master of Music degree from Florida State University and pursued post graduate studies at Indiana University School of Music and The American Institute for Musical Studies, Graz, Austria. Teachers of singing have included Eleanor Steber, Gino Bechi, Gianna D’Angelo and Kurt Weill-repertoire coaches Randolph and Lys Symonette. Teachers of stage direction have included Hans Busch, Ross Allen and Roger Brunyate.

McNaron recorded the CD Music in Flight which was endorsed by Nobel Peace Prize winner DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (MSF). It contains songs by European composers "in flight" from war and political oppression and also features Alabama composers. She is presently recording the CD Rosas de Pulpa; Rosas de Cal - the Music of Valdo Sciammarella, to be released late in 2008. Appearing regularly as a recitalist in Twentieth-Century Art Song, she also directs The Politically Incorrect Cabaret, an ensemble which presents political satire through Berlin-style variety cabaret. Her duo, Masters’ Cabaret, performs authentic German and French cabaret music. Both troupes tour the Southeast.

As a stage director, she has directed over forty operas, musicals, revues and galas for the Centro Escuela de Opera in Caracas, Venezuela; Adelaide University in Australia; Opera Jacksonville, Opera Birmingham, Opera de Lafayette and many others. She served as an assistant director at the Opera Barga Festival in Barga, Italy. McNaron also produces rallies, teach-ins and speaking events for the Birmingham Peace Project and other progressive organizations.

Having served as Director of Opera and taught voice at several universities including Northwestern State in Louisiana, Belmont University in Nashville and Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, she was formerly Head of the Voice Department at Adelaide University, So. Australia. Now based in Birmingham, AL, McNaron is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and has recently been awarded grants by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Lowder Foundation.

dianemcnaron@aol.com

FULL BIO

Soprano Diane McNaron has appeared in the media of opera, recital, oratorio and cabaret throughout the US and in Germany, Austria, Italy and Australia. Her classic cabaret duo, “Masters’ Cabaret” with singer/pianist Michael King has appeared throughout the South for fifteen years featuring the songs and stories of Kurt Weill, Marlene Dietrich, and Edith Piaf plus the works of Britten, Schoenberg and Satie. ( http://www.kwf.org/ ) Her new “Politically Incorrect Cabaret,” an ensemble of a dozen singer/actors, dancers and instrumentalists created in 2004, has recently attracted attention among the press and public. Presenting Berlin-style Cabaret styled after the political cabarets of the late Weimar Republic, the group‘s edgy style, fearless political satire, topical lyrics by Andrew Duxbury and deliciously offbeat choreography by Deborah Mauldin have rocked audiences throughout the South. (Think Capitol Steps with outrageous costumes and much more sophisticated music!)

Having sung a number of operatic roles such as Musetta in LA BOHEME, Sophie in DER ROSENKAVALIER and Adele in DIE FLEDERMAUS, McNaron is also a frequent oratorio soloist in such works as the Mozart, Brahms and Faure requiems, Handel’s MESSIAH and the Haydn LORD NELSON MASS. She has been particularly successful in interpreting Twentieth-Century song literature such as Valdo Sciammarella's "Cantigas de Amigo"

and Lili Boulanger’s "Clarières dans le Ciel," which she has presented with pianist Heather Coltman at many events including the Schmidt College Music Series in Boca Raton, the International Conference of Women in Music, Buffalo, NY and at its Alabama premiere for the Birmingham Festival of Arts. McNaron was a First Place winner of the prestigious Florida Operatic Voice Scholarship Competition and a Metropolitan Opera Competition semi-finalist.

In 2000, McNaron released the CD “Music in Flight" which was endorsed by DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS/MEDICINS SANS FRONTIERES, then holder of the Nobel Peace Prize. ( www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ ) The CD contains songs written while the composers were “in flight” from war and political oppression, including works by Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau and Alabama composer LaDonna Smith. DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS receives fifty percent of the CD's proceeds.

A veteran stage director and producer with an advanced degree in Stage Direction for Opera and additional post graduate work in design and technical production, McNaron has directed over forty operas, musical revues, musicals, cabaret productions and galas including DIE FLEDERMAUS with the Centro Escuela de Opera in Caracas, Venezuela; THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, THE MERRY WIDOW and SLOW DUSK for Northern Arizona University; LA FORZA DEL DESTINO and THE BEGGARS' OPERA for Jacksonville Opera; L'ELISIR D'AMORE for Opera Birmingham in 1995; L'OCCASIONE FA IL LADRO for Florida State Opera; AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS and THE ELIXIR OF LOVE for The Opera de Lafayette, Lafayette, IN; AMAHL for Miles College, Birmingham, AL; THE CONSUL for Millikin University, Milliken, IL; YEHU for Belmont University, Nashville,TN; DON PASQUALE for Adelaide University, Adelaide, South Australia; and "Women in Opera ... and Pants!" for Birmingham-Southern College,1999, Birmingham, AL, among many others. She was an Assistant Director at the International Festival of Opera in Barga, Italy, and studied stage direction under Roger Brunyate at Florida State University and Opera Production at Indiana University, the world's largest School of Music, under Hans Busch, Max Roethlissberger and Ross Allen. In the mid-eighties, McNaron was Artistic Director of The Opera de Lafayette in Indiana. Having served as Asistant Stage Manager/Assistant Director for Opera Mississippi under Metropolitan Opera Director Bodo Igetz and Assistant Director/Stage Manager for Birmingham Opera, she was also the latter company's Production Manager, 1995 - 1997. McNaron wrote and directed cabaret-style fund-raisers for several companies including THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE, VIENNESE, PLEASE! and A FRENCH REVUE. In 1998, she founded and produced the First Light Gala , ( firstlightshelter.org ) a highly visible, continuing annual fund-raiser for the First Light Women’s Shelter in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2001 McNaron created the BAA Cabaret Series for the BIRMINGHAM ART ASSOCIATION ( birminghamartassociation.org ) which presents legitimate cabaret performances in an intimate gallery atmosphere. She regularly produces events for the BIRMINGHAM PEACE PROJECT ( http://hometown.aol.com/dianemcnaron/page1.html ), including "War and Poverty through the Eye of Katrina," featuring the founder of Common Ground Relief, Malik Rahim,

( commongroundrelief.org );

January, 2006; "Amy Goodman, Best Selling Author and Host of Democracy Now," Sept. 2005; "What Would Martin Luther King Do?" in 2004, and "The Patriot Act: Protection or Invasion," with Attorney Lynne Stewart, Sept. 2002.

( http://freitag.de/2002/40/02400201.php ) http://www.unikassel.de/fb5/frieden/bewegung/usafriedensbewegung.html

McNaron earned an M.M. in Opera Production, with a minor in Theatre, from Florida State University where her coincidental voice studies with Wagnerian baritone and Kurt Weill interpreter Randolph Symonette and coach Lys Symonette, the latter being Vice President of the Kurt Weill Foundation, lead to her fascination with and many performances of that composer’s works. Other voice teachers have included Gianna d'Angelo at Indiana University; Eleanor Steber

( http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Sopranos/Steber__Eleanor/hauptteil_steber__eleanor.html ) New York; Ena Thiessen at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, from which McNaron earned a Performer's Certificate; Gino Bechi at the International Festival of Opera in Barga, Italy; and Vahan Khanzadian, New York.

Formerly Head of the Vocal School and Director of Opera at the University of Adelaide in Australia, McNaron also served as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Opera at Northern Arizona University, and in those same capacities at Northwestern State University in Louisiana and at Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee. Born in Texas, McNaron has lived in Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, New York, So. Australia and Germany and travels widely for work and personal enjoyment. She now lives in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2002, she was a recipient of a grant from the Alabama State Arts Council and in 2001 received a grant from The Lowder Foundation.

As a teacher and vocal coach, McNaron has worked with a variety of singing students from around the US and abroad. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing ( NATS.org ) and her students have won a number of NATS awards. The National Arts Recognition and Talent Search has selected three McNaron students for its first and second place awards. Her students perform widely across the US and compete successfully for admission to top colleges, graduate programs and summer music programs. dianemcnaron@aol.com