Soprano Deborah Selig is quickly gaining recognition 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.

Ms. Selig’s very full performance schedule has included excellent successes in recent seasons.  Assignments for Ms. Selig in the last season for Pittsburgh Opera included 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 includes a recent company and role debut as Nannetta for Opera Roanoke, Norina (Don Pasquale)for Pittsburgh Opera Center, and Elvira (L’Italiana in Algieri ) on the mainstage of the Benedum Center.  Cover assignments for Pittsburgh Opera include Musetta (La Bohème) and Rosasharn in Grapes of Wrath.  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 and looks forward to a return to Central City Opera where she sings Musetta in a production of 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 recital, Ms. Selig’s has sung Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Martin Katz in both Ann Arbor, Michigan and Cincinnati, Ohio, concerts with Chatham Baroque, the Erie Philharmonic and Carmina Burana with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony which she reprises with Erie Philharmonic in the season. Ms. Selig looks forward to her debut with Ashville Symphony in 2010 where she will sing the soprano solo in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Ms. Selig also looks forward to a recital series in the season beginning with performances for the Goethe Institut in Boston and New York,the Ames Town & Gown Chamber Music Association and a summer at the prestigious Ravinia Festival's Stean's Institute for Young Artists.

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