Biography

Stacey Tappan continues to distinguish herself as a world-class musical artist. In recent stellar reviews for her "witty and sexy" Adele in Die Fledermaus with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, she was praised for the production's "most polished singing... her coloratura bright and well-focused." In 2008 she made her debut as Gilda in Rigoletto with Opéra de Lille in France. Other recent engagements include a return to Lyric Opera of Chicago for multiple roles in Strass' Die Frau ohne Schatten, a cover of Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare and the role of Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff.

This season she will be singing Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, covering the title role in Lulu at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, singing Gretel with the DuPage Symphony and appearing in Rheingold and The Birds with Los Angeles Opera.

Tappan recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic singing Wing on Wing, composed and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. She sang in the first concert of the Recovered Voices series at the Los Angeles Opera under the baton of James Conlon, subsequently joining Conlon at the Ravinia Festival to sing the rarely heard songs of Alexander Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker. She has also appeared with Los Angeles Opera as as Virtú and Pallade in L'incoronazione di Poppea and the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel. 

Heralded for her "breakthrough performance" in Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Sir Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage, Ms. Tappan also has appeared with the Lyric Opera as the Woodbird and Woglinde in Wagner's Ring Cycle, the Charmeuse in Thaïs, First Esquire in Parsifal and Papagena in the student matinees of Die Zauberflöte. While with the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, she "turned heads throughout operatic America" and "emerged as a real star" as Isis in the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's Lovers and Friends: Chautauqua Variations.  

Equally outstanding on the concert stage, and one of Symphony Magazine's 2005 "Upwardly Musical Artists on the Move," Tappan's recent schedule includes Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives with the Springfield Symphony in Massachussetts. She has been a featured soloist in Mahler's Second Symphony with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra and in Carmina Burana with the Wichita Symphony and the Elgin Symphony. Other Chicago concert highlights include "Bernstein on Broadway" with the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Hugh Wood's Scenes from Comus with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, three performances of the Stars of Lyric Opera concerts in Chicago's Millennium Park and Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream at Ravinia Festival.  She portrayed Cunegonde in Candide at the Chicago Cultural Center, later returning in Rossini's Il signor Bruschino and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, winning critical acclaim as "the vocal showstopper."

She was a member of the Juilliard Opera Center and an ensemble artist with the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Wolf Trap Opera, before making her professional debut with Houston Grand Opera as Beth in Little Women, broadcast on PBS' Great Performances and released on CD by Ondine. With Bangkok Opera, she portrayed Panima in Die Zauberflöte after singing the title role in Madana, the first grand opera by a Thai composer. She is featured on the best-selling Thai recording of the Mahajanaka Symphony, a work honoring the King of Thailand. Her operetta roles include Mabel in Pirates of Penzance with Michigan Opera Theatre and Hannah Glawari in The Merry Widow and Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate with Chicago's Light Opera Works.

Her awards include grants from the Elardo Competition and the Solti Foundation U.S., first place in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation competition, finalist in the MacAllister and Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum competitions, the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the Lucrezia Bori award, and first place from the New York Singing Teachers Association, as well as scholarships from Wolf Trap Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, the University of Miami, and Chapman University.