Soprano Deborah Selig has earned critical acclaim for her rich, shimmering voice, her excellent artistic instincts and her fine execution of the lyric soprano repertoire.  A native of Washington, DC, Ms. Selig has performed operatic roles with a number of US companies including Pittsburgh Opera, Dayton Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Roanoke, Central City Opera, Mobile Opera and Connecticut Lyric Opera. In concert, she has sung with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Baroque, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, the CCM Chamber Orchestra, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony and made her debut this season with The Handel and Hayden Society of Boston and Opera Boston. She is one of only 5 American singers chosen to compete in the distinguished Wigmore Hall 2011 song competition in the season and has recently been added to the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series at the Chicago Cultural Center.Ms. Selig returns to the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and looks forward to her debut with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in the season.

Ms. Selig’s successes in recent seasons began with assignments as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera where she performed Gianetta in L’elisir d’amore and Tina in Jonathan Dove’s Flight followed by the High Priestess in Aida.  She added cover assignments of Giulietta in I Capuleti ed I Montecchi and Adina in L’elisir d’amore with the company. Ms. Selig completed the season with a debut performance of Rose in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene for Chautauqua Opera to excellent acclaim. The 2008-2009 Season saw Ms. Selig in several role debuts: Nannetta for Opera Roanoke, Norina (Don Pasquale)for Pittsburgh Opera Center, and Elvira (L’Italiana in Algieri ) on the mainstage of the Benedum Center.  She added Musetta (La Bohème) and Rosasharn in Grapes of Wrath to her repertoire in the season. Ms. Selig also sang the soprano solo in Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice for Soprano, Piano and Clarinet – a highlight of her season.  Other roles performed include Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) for Connecticut Lyric Opera and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for Central City Opera, Valencienne (The Merry Widow) for Mobile Opera, Adele (Die Fledermaus) together with Amy (Little Women) for Dayton Opera, and Mary Warren (The Crucible) and Hodel (Fiddler on the Roof) for Chautauqua Opera. In addition she has covered Abigail (The Crucible) for Chautauqua Opera and Marion (The Music Man) also for Chautauqua Opera.  Ms. Selig has also toured the role of Tessa (Trinity), a new John Kennedy opera, for Santa Fe Opera and returns to cover Adina, also in the season. Ms. Selig began the 2009-2010 Season with a company and role debut for Kentucky Opera where she sang Curley's Wife in Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men to excellent acclaim. On the operatic stage, the 2010-2011 Season began with a reprise of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice in New York City and a return to Chautauqua Opera for a role debut as Pamina in The Magic Flute. In 2011-2012, she makes a role debut singing Bella in Michael Tippet’s A Midsummer Marriage with Opera Boston and returns to Central City Opera where she performs Musetta (La Bohème).

A striking and versatile artist on the concert stage, Ms. Selig has performed Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor , Fauré’s Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs with various orchestras in the US. In concert and recital, projects in the 2010-2012 Seasons comprise a program with baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Cameron Stowe at the Goethe Institut in Boston, the Ames Town & Gown Chamber Music Association, and the Cosmos Club Music Series in Washington, DC, a return to Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Concert House for a recital of Wolf and Schumann songs with distinguished Martin Katz, debuts with the University of Wyoming Cultural Programs Series for a song recital and a performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with orchestra. The 2011 season continues with soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Boston, MA, a debut with the Longfellow Chorus and Orchestra for Elsie in Arthur Sullivan’s cantata, The Golden Legend and performances of Vaughn Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem and Poulenc’s Gloria and performances of Bach cantatas with the distinguished Handel and Haydn Society of Boston and a debut with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2012 Ms. Selig returns for performances with the Cape Cod Symphony and Orchestra with conductor Jung-Ho Pak reprising Arthur Sullivan’s The Golden Legend and adds Elgar’s Scenes from the Saga of Kin Olaf, Op. 30. She has recently been added to the roster for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series at the Chicago Cultural Center to perform in the 2012 season. She is one of only 5 American singers chosen to compete in the distinguished Wigmore Hall 2011 song competition and prior to this competition was invited to join the notable Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute for Singers (2010) where she performed recitals and coached with renowned teachers and artists including Brian Zeger, Malcolm Martineau, Denise Massé, Iain Burnside, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Ms. Selig returns to the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra in 2013 to sing the Soprano Solo in the Brahms Requiem.

Ms. Selig’s early professional training began as a student at the prestigious Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  There she performed her first Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and added Sandrina in La Finta Giardiniera and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel.  She next trained as an apprentice artist and studio artist with Chautauqua Opera, was a fellow at the distinguished Tanglewood Music Center, and she attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and the Bay View Music Festival.  Other roles as part of her training included Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Foreign Woman in The Consul, Gianetta in The Gondoliers, and Yum-Yum in The Mikado.

Ms. Selig is the recipient of the distinguished Agnes M. Canning Memorial Award, the Shoshana Foundation Richard F. Gold Career Grant, is a winner of the Southern Ohio district Metropolitan Opera Competition, and has won 2^nd place in the National Opera Association Competition.  Most recently, Ms. Selig was chosen as a finalist in both the Jensen Foundation Competition and the Liederkranz Competition (lieder division).

Ms. Selig received an Artist Diploma in Opera and a Master of Music from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  She is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan where she received a double degree in Voice Performance and English.

“…the star throughout…” “....her sense of line and nuance were matched only by the sheer beauty of her tone and power of projection.”

New London Day

“Deborah Selig was absolutely stunning as the peasant bride…” 

Cincinnati Enquirer