Search - Stella Markou (soprano);Chamber Soloists :: Music of Barbara Harbach, V.5: Vocal Music - Soprano, Winds, Strings, Harp, Trumpet & Piano

Director of Vocal Studies at the University of Missouri St. Louis, soprano Stella Markou has appeared as a featured soloist for numerous international and national performing venues, including the Heidelberg New Music Festival, International Computer Music Conference, SEAMUS, Electronic Music Midwest, NWEAMO, the Dance New Amsterdam Company, as well as the University of Nevada Las Vegas guest artist series. Her awards include first prize in the Doctoral Division of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), first prize in the Arizona Opera Guild Competition, and is the recipient of the prestigious Arizona Community Foundation/ Piper Enrichment Grant. Ms. Markou has performed roles from Die Zauberflöte, The Turn of the Screw, The Mikado, The Telephone, and La Canterina. She made her Off-Broadway debut in 2009 in Booth! as Mary Devlin. She also performs regularly as a recitalist and has been featured in master classes with Shirley Emmons, Warren Jones, Cynthia Munzer and Bo Skovhus. A passionate performer and champion of contemporary music, Ms. Markou holds a Bachelors degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a Masters degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is currently completing her Doctoral studies at The University of Arizona. Her work can be found on the SEAMUS and MSR Classics record labels. American composer, author and performer Barbara Harbach has a substantial musical catalog to her credit, including symphonies, musicals, choral anthems, film scores, ballets, arrangements for brass and organ of Baroque music as well as numerous works for chamber ensemble, string orchestra, organ, harpsichord and piano. She is heavily involved in the research, editing, publication and recording of manuscripts of eighteenth-century keyboard composers as well as historical and contemporary women composers. She is the editor of the journal, Women of Note Quarterly. Harbach initiated Women in the Arts-St. Louis, a celebration of the achievements of women creators. The over 800 events by various cultural organizations in the St. Louis region provided audiences with new and historical examples of the work of women writers, composers and artists. In 2006 for her work Women in the Arts-St. Louis she was the recipient of the Arts Education Award from the Missouri Arts Council: the Missouri Citizen for the Arts Award: the Yellow Rose Award from the Zonta International Club of St. Louis; the UM-St. Louis College of Fine Arts and Communication, Faculty Excellence Award; and in 2007 she was awarded the Hellenic Spirit Foundation Award. In June 2009, her musical Booth! was premiered at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City where it won a competition at the Tisch School of the Arts. Recordings of Barbara Harbach s work are available on the MSR Classics, Naxos Records, Gasparo Records, Kingdom Records, Albany Records, Northeastern Records and Hester Park labels, and in published form from Robert King Music, Elkan-Vogel, Augsburg Fortress, Agape Music and Vivace Press publishers. Her lively performances and recordings have captured the imagination of many American composers, and the body of work written for and dedicated to her is substantial.