Behind the Music

Kelly Whitesell soprano, is a Connecticut native who most recently sang as the hilarious Phoebe in Yeoman of the Guard with Connecticut Gilbert and Sullivan Society.   This past year was one of debuting new works: first as characters in Welcome to Limbo: A Purcell Purgatory Pastiche, with multi-talented librettist and director Spencer Reese and the music of Henry Purcell, and then in her puppetry debut as a singing shadow Europa in Taurus, a unique interdisciplinary puppet play by her dear friend Joanie Papillon, with original music by Phillippe Dionne.

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In 2023, she made her Italian debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with the Orchestra da camera di Greve in Chianti.  A lover of Mozart, she performed as the other of Giovanni’s noblewomen, Donna Elvira, at Hartford's Bushnell Theater with Connecticut Lyric Opera.   Some of Kelly's recent favorite roles were Elle in Poulenc’s La voix humaine in the round, singing as a racoon in a living composition, Michael Ching’s Speed Dating Tonight!, and wailing for Connecticut audiences during her professional debut as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare with Connecticut Lyric Opera in 2022.  Other previous roles include Monica (The Medium), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus Act 2), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Celie (Signor Deluso), Witch (Into the Woods), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and many chorus credits including Die Fledermaus, La Boheme, Orfeo ed Euridice, Don Giovanni and Cendrillon. 

Kelly is a lifelong learner, and completed her Master of Music in Voice & Opera at University of Connecticut, and continues her doctoral studies under the tutelage of Rod Nelman.  She graduated with a BM in Voice Performance and a BM in Music Education from Eastman School of Music, studying with Katherine Ciesinski as well as Philip Silvey.   Enticed by UConn's unique puppetry program and its connection to singing, Kelly has collaborated as Pamina and Queen of the Night in a marionette performance of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. With her experience in Taurus, Whitesell narrowed the focus of her dissertation studies to explore opera singers and puppets.

 

Kelly won the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra (RICCO) Collegiate competition, and joined them last fall for a performance of Mendelssohn works. Kelly received First Prize, Lynne Clarke Vocal Prize, in the Friends of Eastman Opera Voice Competition in 2019, as well Eastman's Ornest Award in 2018.  Whitesell has enjoyed performing concert repertoire, such as the never-ending gift that is Handel's Messiah, Lowell Liebermann’s emotionally impactful Six Songs on Poems of Nelly Sachs, the delightful challenge of J.S. Bach's Mass in B-minor, as well as various jazz sets she tailored with her 'cats' in the Rochester, NY area.

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Kelly serves as the Primary Choral Section Leader at Old Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Bloomfield (OSA), sharing her voice and choral direction as music ministry.  Miss Whitesell is also Connecticut and New York teacher certified. She taught as a long-term substitute at RHAM High School and Middle School, where she taught Choir, Music Theory, and developed the curriculum for History of Popular Music.  She is a dedicated instructor of private voice lessons at the Thames Valley Music School.  Whitesell holds a Teaching Assistantship with the University of Connecticut, where she also provides voice lessons and teaches undergraduates in 'Opera Studio' and 'Stage Skills for Singers.'  A proponent of healthy habits, she has engaged 150 high schoolers on the topic of vocal health in choral settings for a 'Young Conductor's Symposium' at UConn. 

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Prior to collegiate music studies, she was granted the Ensign Darling Vocal Fellowship through the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, where she studied with Jurate Svedaite-Waller, Gwendolyn Hillman, John Torrenti, Joanne Scattergood, and Ellie Ellsworth.  She also enjoyed playing trumpet and Irish dancing, as well as performing many musical roles such as Dolly (Hello Dolly), Fairy Godmother (Cinderella), Marion (The Music Man), Joanne (Godspell), Reno Sweeney (Anything Goes), and Snoopy (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown).

 

With gratitude for the privilege and opportunities she has been granted,

Kelly loves to share the blessing of music with all.