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 in the Tri-State Area, and she has also consistently demonstrated an affinity for art song performance in both salon-style house concerts and traditional recitals. A snapshot of her broad repertoire includes Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew songs, music of contemporary American composers, and 12-tone compositions.
She is enjoying a busy year of singing, which begins with a self-curated recital titled “Of Dreams” in Lenox, Massachusetts given alongside conductor/pianist Noah Palmer, featuring music of Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Wieck-Schumann, Weill, Debussy, Fauré, and contemporary American composers Nathan Shields, Emily Cooley and Sally Wyche-Coenen. Next, Lily joins pianist Thomas Sauer and Chamber Music Quad Cities for a program of Debussy, Weill, and Beethoven. Lily is 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. Lastly, she joins her friends in the Ars Choralis choir of Woodstock, NY as the soprano soloist for performances of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
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 and great Iowa public school education. 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’s Rhapsody 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. www.lilyarbisser.com
last edited - 3/11/2024
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In 2023, Lily enjoyed giving recitals in multiple states. She also joined her friends in 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 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