susan lorette dunn , soprano

SUSAN LORETTE DUNN studied at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, Australia, graduating with both a Bachelor of Music degree and a Master's degree in Voice/Opera. She made her debut with Opera Australia performing the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler On The Roof. Her Opera Queensland debut was as Frasquita in Carmen. Other roles in her repertoire have included Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana, Dorabella in Così fan Tutte, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Earth in The Eighth Wonder, Musetta in La Bohème, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Stephano in Romeo and Juliet, Cornelia in Damascus, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, and Catherine in Seeking True South.

Miss Dunn's international performances include the British premiere of Kurt Weill's Street Scene in London's West End, the U.S. tour of Pirates - The Ballet, an American Music Theatre Gala in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Bernstein on Broadway for Leonard Bernstein, an 80th Anniversary Celebration at Indiana University. Miss Dunn has performed major roles throughout Australia in musical theatre, which include Aspects of Love, Baby, Nunsense II, Lucky Me, Into The Woods, A Little Night Music, Kiss Me Kate and Leonard Bernstein's Mass. In addition, she has both produced and performed as a soloist in concert performances of Aspects of Romance, Broadway Showstoppers, No Tune Like A Show Tune, and Leading Ladies. She has also produced and performed in Bernstein on Broadway, a show she conceived for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Miss Dunn has performed and recorded as soloist with ABC Australia and with many of Australia's major orchestras. In 2003 Miss Dunn will sing concert performances with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony II, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and Connecticut's Summer Music Festival. She has premiered Australian vocal works in concert internationally and has recorded Australian compositions for EMI/Jade. Composers Betty Beath, Stephen Lalor, David Hush, and Paul Keelan have written works for her.

Susan Lorette Dunn has been instrumental as an educator while maintaining her full-time performing career. She has held positions as lecturer at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and the Queensland University of Technology, where she also devised programs in Music Theatre Skills. She is currently lecturing in voice at the Shepherd School of Music. Miss Dunn has won many major Australian singing competitions including the State and Commonwealth Finals of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition, an Opera Foundation Scholarship, an Australia Council Grant for study in the United Kingdom, an Arts Queensland Personal Development Grant, and most recently a prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship, where she worked with the New York Festival of Song in New York City. As a result of her Churchill Fellowship, Miss Dunn will launch her company Songfest with a program entitled Shades of Amber - The Songs of Leonard Bernstein. Songfest is dedicated to the reinvention of the song recital with special emphasis on Australian and American song.