Faculty

• Kenneth Bozeman, chair, voice, vocal pedagogy
  

  Frank C. Shattuck Professor of Music

  Kenneth Bozeman, tenor, holds performance degrees from Baylor University and the University of Arizona. He subsequently studied at the State Conservatory of Music in Munich, Germany on a fellowship from Rotary International. He is chair of the voice department and teaches voice and vocal pedagogy. Mr. Bozeman has received both of Lawrence University's Teaching Awards (Young Teacher Award, 1980; Excellence in Teaching Award, 1996). He was awarded the Van Lawrence Fellowship by the Voice Foundation in 1994 for his interest in voice science and pedagogy and is the chair of the editorial board of the NATS Journal of Singing. His former students have participated in opera internships at Sante Fe, Tanglewood, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Central City Opera, and Utah Opera, and have sung with Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Colorado, Washington Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Seattle Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and Santa Fe Opera.

  Mr. Bozeman has been an active performer of oratorio, including singing the tenor roles in the St. Matthew and St. John Passions, the Christmas Oratorio, the B Minor Mass, the Magnificat, and various cantatas of Bach, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Creation, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Vaughn Williams Hodie. He has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Green Lake Music Festival, the Purgatory Music Festival of Colorado, the Louisville Bach Society, the Historical Keyboard Society of Wisconsin, and on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Live from the Elvehjem."

  Contact by e-mail: kenneth.w.bozeman@lawrence.edu

• Joanne Bozeman, voice, diction
  

  Instructor of Music

  Joanne Bozeman, soprano, received the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Arizona where she studied with Eugene Conley. Her other primary teachers were Bruce Lunkley and Richard Miller. She has been a member of the voice faculty at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music since 1993, where she teaches studio voice and related coursework. Her students are frequent winners at NATS competitions, and former students have continued on to fine graduate programs throughout the United States. A number have pursued singing careers, winning competitions and professional placement with organizations including the Palm Beach Vocal Competition, Metropolitan Council Auditions, Glimmerglass Opera Young Artist Program, Opera Fort Collins and premier men’s choral ensemble, Chanticleer.

  Ms. Bozeman has been an active soloist in recital, concert and oratorio for over thirty years, appearing with organizations including the Fox Valley Symphony, the Green Lake Music Festival, the Bach Chamber Choir ( Rockford Illinois) and the Lawrence University Concert Choir and Orchestra. She has performed on Wisconsin Public Radio's Sunday Afternoon Live at the Elvehjem and as resident soloist at Music in the Mountains, a summer music festival in Colorado. Ms. Bozeman's repertoire includes Handel's Messiah and the Dettinger Te Deum, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Requiem and Mass c minor, and Bach's Christmas Oratorio as well as a large body of song repertoire and chamber music. She enjoyed many years of performing with husband, tenor Kenneth Bozeman, and is the mother of three young adult children.

  Ms. Bozeman has special interests in singer-related health and vocology, including the effect of the hormonal cycle on the female voice. In addition to studio voice, she teaches Introduction to Vocal Studies, English Singing Diction, and Vocal Proficiency and Pedagogy.

  Contact by e-mail: joanne.h.bozeman@lawrence.edu

• John T. Gates, voice, opera theater
  

  Visiting Assistant Professor of Music

  John T. Gates has been a member of the Lawrence voice faculty since 2005.   As a bass soloist in many of Germany's more important opera houses and concert halls, he sang some 1000 performances over a period of thirteen years.   His wide-ranging opera repertoire covers eighty roles, including standard works (Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte), early music (Ariodates in Händel´s Serse), and numerous world premiers (Oscar laureate Cong Su's Wenn die Sonne aufgeht).   He commands an equally extensive song and concert repertoire, including Verdi's Requiem, J. S. Bach's St. John's Passion, and Schubert's Winterreise.

  Gates holds the degrees Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music from the University of South Carolina.   He earned his Doctor of Music from Florida State University.   His treatise dealt with communication in modern opera.   Additional research focused on Romantic dualism in Schumann's song literature.

  Prior to his appointment at Lawrence Conservatory, Gates taught voice and directed opera at Stephen F. Austin State University (Texas) and at the University of Miami.

  Contact by e-mail: john.t.gates@lawrence.edu

• Karen Leigh-Post, voice, opera theater
  

  Associate Professor of Music

  In Europe, critics described Karen Leigh’s Carmen as "a very attractive heroine with a striking mezzo soprano" (Mecklenburg-Strelitzer Landeszeitung) and commended the "well-formed supple [vocal] lines of her Venus" (Tannhäuser, Neue Zeit) while the New York Times wrote, "Karen Leigh sang extremely well" in the world premiere of Animalen which opened the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota.

  Past seasons have also found Ms. Leigh’s versatile mezzo in Germany and New York singing Jenny in Die Dreigroschenoper with the infamous Gisela May, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, and Anita in West Side Story. Additional credits include leading roles in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Madama Butterfly, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, L’Elisir d’Amore, The Mikado and Hänsel und Gretel.

  Ms. Leigh further demonstrated her dramatic mastery when she transported audiences via the intimidating role of Maria Callas in Master Class. “Leigh is brilliant in her depth of character, her pacing, her facial expressions, her gestures." (Post Crescent).

  In recital and concert, Ms. Leigh has been heard on several PBS broadcasts singing the works of Mozart with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Stephen Paulus on NPR, Schumann on “Live from the Landmark,” and Bernstein at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park. In addition to regular appearances with the New York chamber ensemble Cassandra, Ms. Leigh has been heard in New York and across the United States singing Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor and Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and Bach’s Weinachts Oratorium in numerous venues.

  Her commitment to the promotion of American art music and its composers has reached as near as New York for the premiere of Alan Cohen’s chamber cycle, A Clover and One Bee and as far as Budapest and the Czech Republic with the songs of John Benson. Additional commissions include Jason Hoogerhyde’s color leaves, light stays (for voice, flute, viola, cello and piano), and the more than twenty new songs by as many composers (including Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen, and Lori Laitman) which she collected in the ground-breaking anthology American Art Song for the Sacred Service (book and CD available through Classical Vocal Reprints).

  Ms. Leigh-Post earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree under the tutelage of master teacher Shirlee Emmons at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts. Other coaches and teachers include Warren Jones, Joan Dornemann, Judith Nicosia and Emma Small. She joined the faculty of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in 1996.

  She is especially pleased to note that alumni from her studio of just over a decade receive scholarships to the finest graduate music programs in the country including the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Michigan and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (top Corbett Award); participate in prestigious apprenticeship programs (including Santa Fe Opera); and perform leading roles in New York City venues such as Town Hall with One World Symphony, Garden State Opera, and Bronx Opera to name but a few.

  Contact by e-mail: karen.leigh-post@lawrence.edu

  Karen Leigh-Post's Web Page

• Bryan Post, voice

  Instructor of Music

  Bryan Post, a protégé of Jerome Hines, appeared with Opera Music Theater International as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata.

  Mr. Post has been heard across the country with National Opera singing Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, and the Baron in Wildschütz. Other roles to his credit include Jenik in The Bartered Bride, Nero in Poppea, Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as the world premiere of Anoush with Michigan Opera Theater.

  Mr. Post holds a Master of Music degree in Opera Theater from Oberlin College and is a member of the voice faculties of Lawrence University and the Lawrence Academy of Music.

  Contact by e-mail: bryan.post@lawrence.edu

• Steven Paul Spears, voice, opera theater
  

  Associate Professor of Music

  Noted for being “most consistently musical, most clear in diction,” possessing a “stunningly beautiful, edgeless tenor” and for “lustrous singing,” tenor Steven Paul Spears has performed with many arts organizations, including those in New York, Berlin, Louisville, Salt Lake City, Memphis, Flagstaff, St. Louis, Palm Beach and Cincinnati.

  Specializing in obscure works of the Baroque (Monteverdi and Handel) and Contemporary Periods (Britten and Orff), his operatic repertoire includes the lyric and coloratura roles of Mozart and Rossini, as well as mainstream character roles, such as Little Bat in Floyd’s Susannah and Goro in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Most recently, Steven sang the role of Nebuchadnezzar in Britten’s The Burning Fiery Furnace in a joint production with Kentucky Opera and the Choral Arts Society of Louisville.

  In March 2003, under the baton of James Conlon, Steven began a series of performances singing the Harlekin in Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, produced in conjunction with the Juilliard School. Originating in New York City, the production has been seen in Spoleto, Italy, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, culminating with a performance in Houston November 2006. The Chicago Tribune said his performance was “most expressive and beautiful of voice.”

  In 2005 Steven portrayed Demo in Cavalli’s Giasone under the leadership of Early Music specialist Harry Bicket at the Aspen Opera Theatre, garnering glowing reviews from the New York Times, Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News for his comic timing and stage presence.

  His avid interest in recital and chamber repertoire has led to engagements with notable organizations, such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Academy of Ancient Music, Louisville Orchestra and Greenwich Music Festival, to name a few. Often in conjunction with performances at other universities, Steven has enjoyed giving master classes, where he promotes healthy singing, commitment to character and the overall enjoyment of making music.

  In Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, Steven’s Evangelist was noted in the Courier-Journal as giving “a vigorous point-by-point distillation” with “…exchanges that crackled with a tension that was almost theatrical in intensity.” Of his aria singing in Bach’s St. John Passion, the Wall Street Journal said Steven brought out “one reason why Bach’s vocal melodies have such complex, searching contours; they’re tracing not just musical thoughts, but also the changing weight and implications of the text,” giving a performance “so true to the words.” Steven will be performing in a Bach concert commemorating the life of Blanche Honegger Moyse, founder of the New England Bach Festival in October.

  Other appearances this season include a performance of Britten’s Les Illuminations with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Choral Arts Society of Louisville, a movement from Frank Tichelli’s Symphony #1 with the Lawrence Wind Ensemble, and recitals.

  Steven’s recording of Renard, utilizing Stravinsky’s translation and final editions to the score, conducted by Robert Craft was released in early 2005 by Naxos Records. His other recording releases include live performances of Bach’s St. John’s Passion and B Minor Mass with the New England Bach Festival, as well as a studio recording of Britten’s Saint Nicolas with the forces of the Choir of St. Francis in the Fields, members of the Louisville Orchestra and conductor, James Rightmyer, in Louisville, KY.

  In 2004 Steven received the Master’s Degree in Music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Marlena Malas. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Louisville School, working under Edith Davis Tidwell, with whom he still studies.

  Steven is enjoying his twentieth year of singing professionally, beginning his eighth year of teaching at Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he is associate professor of music in voice and opera and has just accepted the interim music director position at First Presbyterian Church in Neenah, Wisconsin.

  Steven Paul Spears' personal webpage: http://www.stevenpaulspears.com

  Contact by e-mail: steven.spears@lawrence.edu

• Teresa Seidl, voice, opera theater
  

  Instructor of Music

  Internationally acclaimed soprano Teresa Seidl has distinguished herself through her vast and successful career on the opera, concert and recital stages. Praised for her richly timbered voice and supple artistry, Ms. Seidl is especially known for her interpretations of Mozart and Strauss roles. Of her two most celebrated roles Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier critics have written "rich, noble…and faultless," and "silvery…ravishing the senses." Ms. Seidl has also excelled in the more contemporary roles of the 20th Century, such as Stravinsky’s Anne Truelove "soulful and richly timbered", and the Vixen in Janacek’s masterpiece, The Cunning Little Vixen. Other characters in her repertoire include Monteverdi’s Poppea, classical heroines of Handel and Gluck, the Bel Canto comic works of Donizetti and Rossini, and other mainstays of German opera and operetta such as Lortzing, Nicolai, Lehar and Johann Strauss II. Ms. Seidl’s operatic engagements have taken her to many cities across Germany and Austria, including Hamburg, Leipzig, Vienna, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hannover and Bremen.

  An accomplished concert singer, her vast repertoire includes, amongst others, Bach oratorios, Haydn's Creation, Mozart’s concert works, Beethoven’s epic Ninth Symphony, the requiems of Fauré, Verdi, Dvořák and Orf’s famous Carmina Burana. Ms. Seidl’s performances have been heard in many cultural capitals of the world including New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Lisbon. A favorite soprano of the famed violinist and conductor, Yehudi Menuhin, she was greatly honored to sing a succession of concerts in his memory culminating in a Ninth Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting and Prince Charles in attendance. Other performance venues include cities in South America, Japan, South Africa, Eastern Europe, Lebanon, Israel, Thailand and Greece.

  Ms. Seidl’s involvement with American Voices, a foundation promoting American music and culture abroad, has invited her attentions to recitals and master classes across the globe, encouraging her deep committment to music education and vocal health. Her natural attention to dramatic detail has led to Ms. Seidl’s continued success in directing and teaching musical theater, opera and operetta.

  Ms. Seidl has served on the voice faculties of the Bremen Hochschule für Musik, the Stella Theater Academy in Hamburg, Lawrence Conservatory and the Peck School of the Arts at UW-Milwaukee.

  A native of Wisconsin, Teresa Seidl is a graudate of St. Norbert College and did post-graduate work at the Vienna Konservatorium, Salzburg Mozarteum and the Hochshule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst.

• Bonnie Koestner, vocal coach, opera theater, diction
  

  Associate Professor of Music

  Bonnie Koestner has served as pianist, vocal coach, chorus master and assistant conductor in over two hundred productions for opera companies throughout the United States. Most recently she was Chorus Master and Head of Music Staff for Florida Grand Opera in Miami. For the San Francisco Opera she prepared the American premieres of Tippett's King Priam and Reimann's Ghost Sonata, along with more traditional repertoire. Other companies include Baltimore, Atlanta, Palm Beach, Utah, Lake George, Sacramento, Sarasota, Des Moines Metro, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Shreveport. While at Nevada Opera she developed the Nevada Opera Studio, a highly successful education and outreach program that brings opera to approximately 20,000 students per year. Ms. Koestner was also the head opera coach for sixteen years at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was Chorus Master and coach for Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York from 1997-2011, and will join the music staff of Central City Opera in Colorado for the summer of 2012.

  Ms. Koestner is a graduate of Lawrence University and holds an M. M. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has also studied at L'Università per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy.

  Contact by e-mail: bonnie.koestner@lawrence.edu

• Stephen Sieck, choral conducting
  

  Assistant Professor of Music

  Stephen Sieck joins the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music as Co-Director of Choirs where he directs the Concert Choir and Viking Chorale.  Prior to Lawrence, he served as Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Emory & Henry College in Virginia, where he directed the Concert Choir, Men’s Ensemble, and Festival Choir, and taught private voice, lyric diction, advanced music theory and aural skills, and conducting and choral methods.  

  Stephen completed his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master’s of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in music theory and musicology.  At Illinois he was a recipient of the Schlanger Opera Fellowship, the Best Male Performance in Opera award, the Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, and the Outstanding Graduate Student in Choral Conducting.  Prior to graduate school, Stephen served as the Director of Music at the Brentwood School, a 7th-12th grade college preparatory school in Los Angeles.  

  As a choral singer, Stephen has performed with ensembles such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Roger Wagner Chorale, and the Renaissance group Ensemble Choragós.  As a tenor, Stephen performed the principal tenor roles in productions of The Mikado, The Fairy Queen, Don Giovanni, and Candide, and has sung in master-class with Dawn Upshaw.

  As a scholar, Stephen has published on Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, and Frank Martin in journals such as Tempo, The Choral Scholar, and The Choral Journal and presented research at conferences in England and Switzerland. An active clinician, Stephen has presented in ACDA and MENC conferences on working with tenors and on teaching diction to choirs.  

  Contact by e-mail: stephen.m.sieck@lawrence.edu

• Phillip A. Swan, choral conducting, music education
  

  Associate Professor of Music

  Phillip A. Swan is the Co-Director of Choral Studies at Lawrence University and Musical Director for LU Musicals. Swan directs Cantala (LU Women’s Choir) and the LU Hybrid Ensemble (jazz, early, contemporary, and world music), teaches courses in conducting, musical theater, music education, supervises student teachers and coaches student organized a cappella groups. He is also active in the Appleton community, serving as choir director at Appleton Alliance Church and conductor for the community choir, the White Heron Chorale. Swan received his BA in music education from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, MM in Choral Conducting from UT El Paso, and has completed all coursework for the DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami (Florida). His doctoral essay is focused on the choral works of Eric Whitacre.

  Swan served as a church music and youth director, performed in El Paso Pro Musica, and taught elementary general music in El Paso, Texas, before moving to Watertown, South Dakota in 1989, where he taught high school vocal music for ten years and was an active clinician and adjudicator. His duties at Watertown High School included: Fine Arts Department Chair, Bel Canto Singers (non-auditioned freshman chorus), Concert Choir (non-auditioned grade 10-12 chorus), Meistersingers (auditioned grade 11-12 chorus, who performed twice at the South Dakota Teacher Inservice), private voice lessons, two auditioned show choirs and director for the spring musicals (Hello Dolly, 1940's Radio Hour, The Wizard of Oz, Singin' In The Rain, and Into The Woods). Swan was also actively involved in the Watertown community as musical director of an auditioned community choir (Kampeska Chorale), Town Players (musical theater productions of Fiddler On The Roof and Camelot), and for nine years served as music director for Ninth Avenue United Methodist Church, directing both the sanctuary choir and praise team. Mr. Swan was also very involved in the South Dakota chapter of the American Choral Directors Association with involvements as the Vocal Jazz Repertory and Standards Chair, South Dakota ACDA Newsletter Editor, Co-chair for the 1999 SD Summer Conference, Registration Co-chair for the 1994 ACDA North Central Division Convention, tenor section leader for the 1993 and 1995 SD Honors Choir and Interim Senior High School Repertory and Standards Chairman. While pursuing his D.M.A. degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami, Swan served as senior Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Choral Studies Program, was director of the University Women's Chorale, sang in numerous ensembles (including the prestigious Jazz Vocal 1 and University Chorale) and served as Assistant Director of Music Ministries at Coral Gables Congregational Church.

  In May 2008, Swan was honored to be selected by the LU student body as the recipient of the Mrs. H. K. Babcock Award. (The award is given to an individual from the Lawrence community, who through involvement and interaction with students has made a positive impact on the campus community.) Other awards include the South Dakota ACDA Encore Award (outstanding young choral director), Outstanding Young Men of America, Who?s Who Among American Teachers, the 1997 Northwestern University Summer Fellows Program, Alpha Epsilon Lambda (graduate honor society) and Pi Kappa Lambda (collegiate national music honor society). In March 2001, Swan was selected as one of four national finalists for the graduate choral conducting competition at the ACDA National Convention in San Antonio. Swan is an active clinician and recently returned from conducting the seventh annual Festival of Choirs (a regional choir festival involving approximately 200 high school students and teachers) in Muscat, Oman. Swan is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (serving as the Wisconsin Women?s Choirs R & S Chair), the College Music Society, and the Music Educators National Conference.

  Contact by e-mail: phillip.a.swan@lawrence.edu

• Dale Duesing, Artist in Residence
  

  Artist-in-Residence

  Dale Duesing (a 1967 graduate of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music) is recognized as one of the leading baritones on the international music scene, having scored musical triumphs at major opera houses throughout the world. He has performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera (in major roles including Billy Budd, Papageno, Figaro, Pelleas, Malatesta, etc.), San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Hamburg Opera, The Netherlands Opera Amsterdam, Munich State Opera, Berlin Opera, and the Liceo Barcelona among many others. He has been a regular performer at the leading music festivals of the world, including Salzburg, Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Santa Fe, and Blossom. He has appeared as soloist with the leading orchestras of the world, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the BBC Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of Paris, the Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, and the Suisse Romande Orchestra. The long list of distinguished conductors with whom he has collaborated includes Bšhm, Bernstein, Levine, Giulini, Haitink, de Waart, von Karajan, and Ozawa.

  Mr. Deusing received a Grammy in 1993, was designated Singer of the Year by Opernwelt magazine in 1994, and was described by Le Monde de la Musique 1998 as "a singer who changed opera in the 20th century. His performances of Wozzeck were a triumph." He has most recently received the award for Best Male Performance in 2000 by the Amsterdam based Friends of the Opera for his performance of Beckmesser in Wagner's Die Meistersinger. Mr. Duesing's repertoire has always included both old familiar roles and unfamiliar new roles, and his most recent and current activities clearly continue this tradition: Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus at both the Salzburg Festival and the Semper Opera in Dresden; Beckmesser with both The Netherlands Opera Amsterdam and the Frankfurt Opera; Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg at the Paris Opera; the world premiere of WintermŠrchen by Phillipe Boesmans with the Royal Opera Brussels, and later again at the Liceo Barcelona; Janacek's The Makropoulos Case at the Netherlands Opera; and the world premiere of Nicolas Maw's Sophie's Choice at Covent Garden.

  Contact by e-mail: dale.l.duesing@lawrence.edu

• Janet Planet, vocal jazz
  

  Lecturer in Music

  Jazziz Magazine hailed her as a "Voice of the New Jazz Culture...amazingly powerful with seemingly limitless expression.” In her career, Ms. Planet has performed with legends such as Jackie and Roy, George Benson, and her mentor Nancy King, and shared the stage with many other accomplished jazz artists including Ellis Marsalis, John Harmon, Gene Bertoncini, and Marian McPartland. Janet is also on the staff of the Tritone Jazz Camp and teaches voice privately as well as conducting clinics. 

  Planet frequently shares with students and others her knowledge of vocal technique, jazz history, performance careers, and the music business, bringing to this experience her perspectives as a woman and artist. A busy concert schedule has taken her to performing arts centers, opera houses, colleges, universities, jazz festivals and jazz clubs across the USA and internationally, with appearances in Europe and Japan where she co-founded the First Fraternity of Musicians in the city of Nagasaki in 2000.

  Janet Planet has been paying her dues and studying the craft of singing for over two decades, steadily building a career that began with a high school talent show performance.  Her 1985 Seabreeze release, “Sweet Thunder” brought Janet to the attention of Steve Allen who wrote, “There are so many dumb and inarticulate singers today. It’s a pleasure to hear someone who knows what singing is all about.” As the past century closed and a new one began, music critics have noted her arrival as an accomplished artist.

  While technique sometimes gets in the way of creative jazz singing, Planet employs her faultless technique to the service of phrase and text.  Words count, and are never shorted, her clear but easy diction exploring surfaces and recesses alike.  Her ability to support the tone and sustain a long line, tells time after time.  And, in every ballad and every samba, the sheer beauty of her tone takes her performance to a level of its own.  Still, she can brandish heat and steel, she brings a special insight and affection to every song.  “Janet Planet is now almost certainly the best of today’s jazz singers, but even more, she'd earn a high standing in any age.” said Erik Eriksson.

  Producer, recording artist, for numerous years Janet has served as a session artist.  She co-founded Stellar Sound Productions in 1995, a recording label that has consistently earned praise from reviewers for both exceptional artistic content and high production values. Among the Stellar releases are artists, jazz singer/piano duo, Nancy King and Steve Christofferson, Cellist, Matt Turner and pianist/composer, John Harmon. Active in all aspects of the recording business, she owns and operates Steel Moon Recording Studio with her husband, saxophonist/composer, Tom Washatka.

  A productive recording artist herself, Janet has 23 recordings in her discography to date. Celebrating her Stellar release “Just Above A Whisper” with guitarist Gene Bertoncini and pianist/composer John Harmon, she performed at Manhattan’s Jazz Standard in 2006. Cadence Magazine said:  “Janet’s a cappella opening on “Close Enough For Love” is all you have to hear to understand how voice and lyric can be heard as one.  On “Like Someone In Love,” she displays uncanny vocal virtuosity in unison passages with Bertoncini’s guitar...an exemplary hour of music.”

  Janet Planet's webpage: http://www.janetplanet.com/

  Contact by e-mail: janet.planet@lawrence.edu

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