Jessica Abel
Jessica Abel is a young American soprano who is committed to artistry and nuance in the music she performs. Jessica is an avid promoter of contemporary vocal music and is a 2008 recipient of the Phyllis Bryn-Julson Prize for Commitment To and Performance of 20th and 21st Century Vocal Literature. Jessica recently performed the title role in a contemporary American opera Dora with the Peabody Chamber Opera, and gave a recital “Early Works of Contemporary Masters” at the Peabody Conservatory. Also recently, she commissioned and premiered the song cycle Six Significant Landscapes, by emerging American composer Evan Rogers and performed Libby Larsen’s song cycle Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII on the Peabody Thursday Noon Recital Series. Upcoming, Jessica will perform Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire with Ars Nova Dallas at the Dallas Festival of Modern Music.
Ms. Abel is equally at home performing the beloved standard operatic and art song repertoire. This summer, she will be in residence in Graz, Austria as a member of the Opera Studio at the American Institute of Musical Studies. In the summer of 2008, Jessica performed the role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro under the direction of Matthais Kuntzsch with the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre. She also recently appeared as Papagena in the Peabody Opera production of Die Zauberflote. Past recitals have included works by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Faure, Debussy, Poulenc, among others.
As a musician who gained inspiration, motivation, and support from her pre-collegiate studies, Jessica believes strongly in music education as a foundation for cultivating the creativity and productivity of youths, as well as a means to foster appreciation for the arts. In 2007, she toured to local grade schools in the Baltimore area, performing the role of Pamina in the Peabody Opera Outreach production of an abridged version of the classic opera Die Zauberflote. Jessica has specialized graduate-level training as a vocal pedagogue. She runs a private studio in Baltimore, MD, and is on the faculty at the International School of Music in Bethesda, MD. She is committed to encouraging the talents of every youth to help create confident, well-rounded individuals.
Jessica holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the Florida State University College of Music. She is currently pursuing a Graduate Performance Diploma at the Peabody Conservatory, with emphasis in contemporary vocal literature, where she studies with Marianna Busching and Phyllis Bryn-Julson.
