Danielle DeNiese Soprano   

Danielle DeNiese emerged at the turn of the millennium, at an unusually young age, as one of the most promising young sopranos of that time. She has established herself in a number of performance settings, including the opera house, the Broadway stage, and in film soundtracks. A third-generation singer from a highly musical family, she began studying voice in her native Australia at the age of eight. The family moved to Los Angeles when Danielle was ten, in order to continue her musical training. She studied at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences and the Colburn School of Performing Arts.

She made her operatic debut in Journey to Cordoba, with the Los Angeles Opera, when she was 15. In 1995, she was a winner of the Spotlight Awards program of the Los Angeles Music Center. This program awards twelve scholarships annually to the most promising high school students in dance, instrumental music, and voice. She was the first prize winner of the Jimmy Stewart Music Scholarship, the 1997 Brentwood/Westwood Symphony Scholarship Competition, and the Opera Buffs Inc. Seraphim Award. She won voice scholarships from the National Arts Association and the Young Musicians Foundation. She also won a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award, for her performance as hostess of a special program called AIDS & U.

DeNiese is the youngest vocalist ever accepted into the Tanglewood Young Artists Vocal Program, and enrolled in Mannes College in New York. While in her second year at Mannes, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut on October 29, 1998, in the cast of the opening night of a new production of The Marriage of Figaro, in a cast that featured Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel, Rene Fleming, and Susanne Mentzer. She played Barberina, and was judged by Terry Teachout of the New York Daily News as "…clearly headed for bigger and better things."

DeNiese has been a member of the ensemble of the Broadway production of Les Misérables, and understudied the role of Eponine. She has appeard with the UCLA Evening of Opera Scenes, the Topanga Philharmonic Benefit Concert (after which, a review predicted she would have "…one of the great careers of all time"), the San Juan Chamber Music Festival, and the Opera Buffs Inc. Second Performers Showcase. She has sung at the White House with the Crossroads Chamber Orchestra. Her film work includes singing on the soundtrack of the Ridley Scott film, Hannibal.



© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide