Lily Arbisser is an “individual-timbred soprano” (Opera News) whose voice “floats effortlessly” (www.feastofmusic.com) over the orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons include joining Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute in Chicago as a vocal fellow, winning first prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs’ Biennial Young Artist Competition, being a semifinalist in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s prestigious Lotte Lenya Competition, and debuting at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as Suzu in Riyoichi Saito’s chamber opera Dojoji.
Lily frequents oratorio and operatic stages, and she has consistently demonstrated an affinity for art song, performing in both salon settings and on the concert stage. A snapshot of her broad repertoire includes Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Yiddish, Polish, Czech, Hebrew, and contemporary American art songs.
Spring and Summer 2025 were delightfully busy, including singing the soprano solo in Fauré’s “Requiem” with the Choral Society of the Hamptons, performances as Amour in Gluck’s beloved “Orphée et Eurydice” in New York City, and touring a recital co-curated with pianist Dimitri Malignan entitled “Friendship: Connections in New Lands,” which featured songs by Dmitri Shostakovich, Mieczysław Weinberg, Arnold Schoenberg, and George Gershwin. This month she heads to Amagansett with ensemble Spirito Vivo to join them for “Monteverdi & Caccini: Exultation and Lamentation,” an afternoon of a cappella madrigals for three and five voices by Monteverdi and solo repertoire by Monteverdi and Caccini. Meanwhile, she is preparing for several upcoming recital programs and looks forward to sharing music of Rachmaninoff, Szymanowski, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Weinberg, Simon Laks, Poulenc, and many others. She will also return to the stage as Amour in further performances of Gluck’s “Orphée” in late September in New York City.
Lily’s artistry is grounded in the understanding gained from studying in the Libero CantoTM School of Singing with her teachers Deborah Carmichael and Kinga Cserjési. Libero Canto is a process-oriented approach which holds that the body instinctually knows how to sing but is frequently blocked by psycho-social factors that inhibit freer singing. From the perspective of the Libero Canto School, approaches to technique that are based primarily on conscious, muscular manipulation often fail to address these hindrances and create unnecessary layers of tension. Various exercises developed by the creators of Libero Canto, the Szamosi family of Hungary and Austria, aim to encourage release of these excess tensions through the process of making music.
Lily is grateful for the access to the arts from a young age given to her by her wonderful parents, great Iowa public school education, and fabulous Quad Cities-area private music instructors. In addition to voice, she studied and distinguished herself on cello, French horn, and piano. At the age of seventeen, Lily was featured as the piano soloist with the Quad City Wind Ensemble in a performance of Gershwin’sRhapsody in Blue. Lily graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a Bachelor of the Arts in Art and Archaeology and a Certificate in Vocal Performance. She also holds a Master of Music degree from Mannes College.
When not singing, she can be found outdoors cultivating her passion for ecological restoration and native plant gardening.
last edited – 8/7/2025
Read more about Lily’s past performances below:
2024 began with a self-curated recital titled “Of Dreams” in Lenox, Massachusetts given alongside conductor/pianist Noah Palmer, which featured songs by Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Wieck-Schumann, Weill, Debussy, Fauré, and contemporary American composers Nathan Shields, Emily Cooley and Sally Wyche-Coenen. Next, Lily joined pianist Thomas Sauer and Chamber Music Quad Cities for a program of Debussy, Weill, and Beethoven. Lily was also pleased to present multiple recitals with pianist Dimitri Malignan and his “Missing Voices” project, dedicated to introducing audiences to the music of Jewish composers who were persecuted in the Holocaust and reclaiming space for these important works on the concert stage. She also joined her friends in the Ars Choralis choir of Woodstock, NY as the soprano soloist for performances of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana before heading back to the Berkshires for a recital with collaborator, pianist Renate Rohlfing, focused on composers whose lives were impacted by the Nazification of the 1930s, including Franz Schreker, Ernst Krenek, Wilhelm Grosz, Ruth Schonthal, and Kurt Weill.
In 2023, Lily enjoyed giving recitals in multiple states. She also joined the Ars Choralis choir of Woodstock, NY for a performance as the soprano soloist in Brahms’ “Ein deutsches Requiem” at the historic Maverick Concert Hall.
Lily’s 2022 began with solo appearances in the New York City area and in Iowa. She sang a live-stream recital sponsored by Princeton Pro Musica, which Lily curated to promote the voices of Jewish composers whose lives were irrevocably altered by the events of WWII and the Holocaust. Then she joined forces with Princeton Pro Musica for their performance of James Whitbourn’s oratorio Annelies in which Whitbourn and librettist Melanie Challenger sensitively honor selections from Anne Frank’s diary. Lily then returned to her hometown, Davenport, Iowa, for an exciting debut with Chamber Music Quad Cities. Lily and pianist Thomas Sauer world-premiered art songs featuring poems by Quad Cities-area poets. Lily finished out the year with another debut in her hometown with The Quad City Symphony Orchestra as Mariola in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Two Remain (Out of Darkness).
Looking to past years, in March 2020, before the pandemic halted in-person performances, Lily sang Elle in Poulenc’s La voix humaine with the Modern Opera Company in New York City. During the remainder of 2020 and into 2021, Lily was booked for solo recitals for the NFMC throughout the United States: Arkansas, Michigan, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa, and Chautauqua. When the pandemic resulted in cancellations, Lily continued concertizing online and performed live-stream recitals collectively viewed over 2,000 times
During the summer of 2018, Lily was an Apprentice Artist at Teatro Nuovo studying Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo. Other select operatic performance credits include Monica in Menotti’s The Medium at the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice and Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Opera Seabrook.
Highlights of Lily’s other past oratorio appearances include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, both with Princeton Pro Musica of Princeton, NJ, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Ars Choralis of Woodstock, NY, Orff’s Carmina Burana with The Stonewall Chorale, and the title role in Handel’s Theodora with the Columbia University Bach Society.
Photos by Arielle Doneson