Nancy Markeloff is a versatile artist critically praised for her beautiful, satisfying singing and fine characterizations. Her impressive three-octave vocal range easily encompasses contralto and mezzo-soprano repertoires. She is adept at both serious drama and the comic zaniness and has performed more than thirty-five opera and musical theater roles for Amarillo Opera, the internationally acclaimed Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston, Houston Grand Opera, Lone Star Lyric Theater Festival, Moores Opera Center, Opera in the Heights, Shreveport Opera, St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society and others. She has received personal commendations for singing excellence from legendary opera greats Marilyn Horne and Peter Schreier and from renowned American composer Libby Larsen.
A seasoned concert soloist, Nancy has been a guest artist with the Bach Society of Houston, Houston Masterworks Chorus, The Woodlands Symphony Orchestra and in university faculty and departmental concerts in Houston and New Orleans. Her skill as a stylist is evidenced by her varied repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart and Handel to Brahms, Ravel, Barber and Heggie. She is a frequent guest on KUHF 88.7 Houston Public Radio's fine arts program, The Front Row.
As Managing Director, core singer and founding member of Col Canto Art Song and Vocal Chamber Music, she designs and produces printed programs and creates English translations and surtitles for the group's concerts. She is also the Assistant Director of Lone Star Lyric Theater Festival. She handles publicity and maintains web sites of her own design for both organizations.
Originally from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Nancy has lived in Houston since 1972. She holds a highest honors degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Houston where, as a mid-life student, she studied voice, opera and stagecraft with Katherine Ciesinski and Buck Ross. A sometime commercial artist, longtime domestic engineer and the mother of two grown sons, she shares hearth and home with her patient, supportive husband, Bob.
INFLUENCES
Katherine Ciesinski, Buck Ross, Christa Ludwig, Janet Baker, Kathleen Ferrier, Teresa Berganza, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marilyn Horne, Lorraine Hunt, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Tito Gobbi, Fedora Barbieri, Sharon Radionoff, Matthew Dirst, Lois Alba, Kathryn Barnes-Burroughs, Stephen Harbachick, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Régine Crespin, Rex Harrison, Paul Ebert, Tony Robinson, Carl Stalling, Mel Blanc, June Foray, Groucho Marx, Anna Russell, Carmen Miranda, Starbuck's bold brew du jour, and most of all, Mimsy and "The Big Noise from Winnetka."
1989 - 2006