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BIOGRAPHY

A versatile singing actress and teacher, contralto Martha Jane Howe has performed with numerous opera companies and symphony orchestras throughout the United States and Canada, consistently receiving critical praise for her rich voice and interpretive skill. In 1998 she moved to Vienna, Austria, where she is currently teaching voice, Acting While Singing, presenting Breathing and Interpretation Workshops and stage directing.

A published poet, she began writing program notes with the Param Vir operas she performed with Musik Werkstatt Wien in 1999, and has been writing a monthly essay for Women In Motion, a publication in upstate New York, since July, 2002.

Since starting to stage direct in 2000, Ms. Howe has staged shortened versions of Rocky Horror Show and Oklahoma, blocks from J.C. Superstar and Glöckner von Notre Dame, scenes from Carousel, Frühjahrsparade, Jekyll and Hyde, Sunset Boulevard, Man of La Mancha, The Wiz and Titanic, and over 100 audition songs. She produced and directed the VMS 2003 Christmas Show, and the 2004 Summer Show, Divided Hearts.

She has presented numerous recitals in Vienna, including two concerts of new works in the Alte Schmiede, and two Liederabend concerts in the Schubertkirche, Lichtental. She sang the alto solos in J.S. Bach’s B-minor Mass in München, and three Bach cantatas in Eisenstadt, Austria and Schloss Esterhazy in Hungary. In 2001, she recorded Van de Vate’s All Quiet on the Western Front.

She has specialized in 20th century operas, starting with R. Strauss, Britten and Shostakovich, and performed in 9 different world and U.S. premieres. During five seasons with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she performed in the world premiere of William Bolcom’s McTeague, Prokofiev’s The Gambler, plus Die Walküre, The Bartered Bride, La Sonnambula, and the Ring cycle conducted by Zubin Mehta. With San Diego Opera, she has performed The Rape of Lucretia, Albert Herring, Boris Godunov, Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Le Nozze de Figaro, Eugene Onegin, Roméo et Juliette, and in 2001, Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree. She will return to San Diego for a second Boris in 2007.

Ms. Howe made her San Francisco Opera debut in Lulu and L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and her Los Angeles Opera debut in Faust and Elektra. Among her 70 roles with various companies, she has sung Der Fliegende Holländer, The Rake’s Progress and Elektra with the Canadian Opera Company, and Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov, The Rape of Lucretia, Pelléas et Mélisande and L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Long Beach Opera.

She has also performed over 36 concert roles with major orchestras, including the Chicago, Minnesota and San Francisco Symphonies. She has performed with noted conductors Daniel Barenboim, Nicolas McGegan, Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Dennis Russell Davies, Richard Bonynge, James Conlon, Christoph von Dohnanyi and Leonard Slatkin.

In 1997 and 1999, Ms. Howe represented the Action Committee for Solo Singers at on-going union contract negotiations of the Basic Agreement between AGMA and the participating opera companies. These meetings resulted in the clarification and rewriting of the Basic Agreement and the National Agreement.

Presently, her students are performing in major productions in Berlin, London and Vienna, along with regional productions and individual performances in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Austria and California.