The Multifaceted Career: Chelsea Basler-Aston

Longy School of Music of Bard College is proud to present The Multifaceted Career Speaker Series featuring conversations with musicians who defy categorization. As an essential component of Longy’s career coaching program, this series fosters an exploration of how we (re)define individual success in our diverse and growing field.

Grammy Award-nominated soprano Chelsea Basler continues to make her mark in an extensive array of operatic roles due to her unique combination of vocal appeal and artistry. Praised for her “luminous voice” with its “easy soaring range”, she has also been noted for her “wonderful acting” and ultimately deemed “simply superb”. Ms. Basler returned to Boston Lyric Opera for the East Coast premiere production of Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale as Moira and made a company debut with Boston Midsummer Opera as Clorinda in La cenerentola. In the fall of 2019, Ms. Basler will join the Metropolitan Opera roster, covering Pousette in Manon and rejoining BLO to sing Mary Johnson in the New England Premier of Fellow Travelers. In the winter of 2020, she will be making her role debut as High Priestess in Aida with Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and singing the Soprano Soloist in the Bruckner Te Deum with Commonwealth Choral. Ms. Basler will be returning to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Musetta in La boheme. In the fall of 2020, Ms. Basler will make her Arizona Opera debut.

Ms. Basler enjoys a particularly strong relationship with Boston Lyric Opera, which she initially joined as an Emerging Artist during the 2013– 2014 season. She began the 2016–2017 season with her critically acclaimed role debut as Micaëla in Boston Lyric Opera’s mounting of the Calixto Bieito production of Carmen, and returns to join the company in recital at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. In yet another collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera, Ms. Basler will open the Cape Symphony’s 2017– 2018 season in a program of ‘Opera’s Greatest Hits’, and she most recently played Lucy Brown in the company’s 2018 production of The Threepenny Opera.

Ms. Basler’s talents have been recognized throughout the vocal competition in circuit. In 2017 she has already won first place in the National Opera Association’s prestigious Carolyn Bailey and Dominick Argento Vocal Competition, as well as both Fourth Place and the Lorena Beasley Mangin Memorial Award in the Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Vocal Competition (Shreveport, LA). In 2016 Ms. Basler placed as a semi-finalist in the Brava! Opera Theater and James M. Collier Competition and second place winner in the Mildred Miller International Vocal Competition, under the auspices of Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. Ms. Basler has also earned the Flournoy Award from the Mary Jacobs Vocal Competition, Boston University’s Kahn Award, first place in the Peter Elvins Vocal Competition, and a grant from the Shoshana Foundation. Ms. Basler earned her Artist Certificate (Opera Institute) and Master of Music from Boston University and her Bachelor of Music from New England Conservatory.

*Tickets are not required for attendance