American Lyric Coloratura Soprano, Nancy Elledge, has captivated and delighted audiences domestically and abroad. She has performed in over 40 roles with opera companies and theaters and has appeared as a soloist with internationally recognized orchestras and symphonies. Some of her operatic roles include Baby Doe in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Cunegonde in Candide, Adina in The Elixir of Love, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Marie in The Daughter of the Regiment, Norina in Don Pasquale, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Blondchen in The Abduction from the Seraglio, and Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte.
Some of the opera companies have included N.Y. City Opera, The Dallas Opera, The Lyric Opera of Dallas, Western Opera Theater, Baltimore Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Austin Lyric Opera, Fargo-Morehead Opera, Orlando Opera, Texas Opera Theater, Shreveport Opera, in addition to a host of national and international symphonies and theater companies.
She is equally at home with operetta, opera and musical theater and she has performed numerous musical roles including: Maria in The Sound of Music, Marian in The Music Man, Nadina in The Chocolate Soldier, and over 35 performances as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. In addition, she is well known for her one-woman show Lily Pons: Portrait of a Diva, sponsored by The Texas Commission on the Arts.
Miss Elledge is also an experienced concert singer. Her repertoire embraces four centuries and a wide range of masterworks: beginning with the Renaissance glories of Vivaldi, through Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, to 20th century highlights like Vaughan-Williams' Hodie and Orff's Carmina Burana. She has great experience in the popular repertoire, notably in the songs of Richard Rogers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Noel Coward, Lerner & Loewe, Jerome Kern, and numerous concerts in the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire.
She was honored to perform at the home of Van Cliburn for President George and Laura Bush. At the invitation of The City of Dallas, she was selected to be the female soloist at The Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth II. Miss. Elledge has also performed as soloist with various international orchestras on three different tours, throughout Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
She now enjoys a highly rewarding and successful teaching career. She has been on the faculty of Texas Christian University for the last 30 years, while maintaining her own private voice studio in Dallas, TX, having previously taught in New York City. She has been a guest professor at The University of Miami, University of Texas at Austin, and was appointed 1-year interim professor at The University of North Texas. Her many students have thrived and become professional singers themselves under her tutelage.
Currently, her students can be heard performing as soloists and House-Contract singers with theater companies, opera houses and symphony orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. Several of these venues include: The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Brevard Music, Baltimore Opera, Arizona Opera, Ft. Worth Opera, The Dallas Opera, San Jose Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Theater 3, Theater Gera, The Zurich Opera Studio, Landestheater Altenburg, Opera in the Ozarks, Chicago Summer Opera, Garland Summer Musicals, Mississippi Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Danish Royal Opera, Pensacola Opera, and Songfest.
Many of her students have become winners and finalists in high-profile voice competitions including: the Regional Metropolitan Competition, the Merola Opera Program, the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, numerous NATS Competitions, and the Mississippi Opera National Vocal Competition. Numerous others have been accepted to training programs and festivals including Vienna Summer Music, and the Middlebury College German for Singers Summer Immersion Program. And finally some have themselves gone on to be music educators, pioneering education in vocal health and wellness like Stephanie McCranie, founder of The Musical Athlete.
She is extremely proud of her students and their accomplishments and feels blessed to be a musician.