tonia D’Amelio, Soloist Intensive Instructor
Called “extravagantly charismatic” by the San Francisco Chronicle and praised by San Francisco Classical Voice for her “vivid and technically assured” singing, lyric coloratura soprano Tonia D’Amelio maintains an active performing career with opera companies, orchestras, chamber ensembles, and vocal consorts across the U.S. and abroad, with a repertoire spanning five centuries.
She particularly enjoys premiering opera and concert works, having created the role of Celia in Allen Shearer’s Middlemarch in Spring for the world premiere in San Francisco and the revival with Charlottesville Opera, sung in the first performance of Ryan Brown’s Mortal Lessons at the Hot Air Festival, and joined the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys to premiere Ben Bachmann’s Fantasia on American Christmas Carols. Tonia also performed featured roles in the modern stage premieres of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Le temple de la Gloire (1745 version) with Philharmonia Baroque and Carlo Pallavicino’s Le amazzoni nell’isole fortunate (1679) with Ars Minerva.
Recent and upcoming highlights include Bach cantatas with Cantata Collective, Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate and Coronation Mass, George Lewis’ Anthem, Ancient Voices of Children by George Crumb, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Other favorite opera and concert credits include The Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Musetta (La bohème), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Elisetta (Il matrimonio segreto), and soprano solos in Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion and Mass in B minor.
In addition to teaching voice for the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus and at San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA), Tonia teaches alignment-focused group fitness classes at Honor Barre in Piedmont. Drawing on her knowledge of anatomy and movement, her teaching incorporates various practices to energize and free the vocal instrument, including stretching, myofascial stimulation (self-massage), and yoga postures and breathing techniques. She believes that regardless of repertoire or style, singing is an expression of the singer’s entire body and state of being, and she encourages each student to grow through practicing artistic inquiry and self-compassion. Tonia holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Harvard University and a master’s degree in vocal performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has attended several training programs for opera and Baroque music in the U.S. and Europe.