Diane Thornton

Artist Associate in Voice
Sloan Music Center B 018

P. O. Box 7131
Davidson, NC 28035-7131
704.894.2592
704.894.2593 (fax)

FEDEX/UPS
209 Ridge Road
Davidson, NC 28036-7131

Diane Thornton, contralto, has distinguished herself as a singer and actress with opera companies and symphony orchestras across the country. In the process, she has garnered the highest critical accolades, including four separate Opera News reviews. She has performed roles for Piedmont Opera Theater in eight different engagements and was repeatedly invited back to sing roles for Opera Carolina and Greensboro Opera. Other companies for which she has performed roles include the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Gold Coast Opera Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Camerata Opera Theater, Minikin Opera, and the Delaware Valley Lyric Opera. Roles which she has performed for these companies include Dame Quickly in Fastaff, Zulma in L’Italiana in Algieri, Mamma Lucia in Cavelleria Rusticana, Gertrude in Romeo et Juliette, and Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte.

Thornton’s interest in contemporary music led her to premiere opera roles for composers Sam Dennison (Rappacini’s Daughter) and Joseph Summer (Hippolytus) through the Billings Institute of American Music, the Contemporary Opera Company of America, and the Pennsylvania Opera Festival. Her relationship with Joseph Summer’s music has continued throughout the years, including a performance of a portion of his Oxford Songs at Summer’s Shakespeare Concerts at Clark University and in Boston.

With a continued interest in premiering new music, Thornton recently performed a piece by American composer James Carlson; and she will premiere another work by Carlson at the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis in the summer of 2007. She premiered composer Jennifer Stasack’s Crossing River’s IV with the Luna Nova Ensemble through the Davidson College Concert Series, performed the work during her fourth season with the ACS New Music Festival in Birmingham, Alabama; and she will be presenting the work again at the 21st Century Chamber Music Concert in Charlotte in 2007. She also recorded the prelude of Stasack’s piece for a November 2006 broadcast through WDAV Classical Radio. During the summer of 2006, she performed songs by Charles Ives at the NITLE New Music Festival and then recorded the pieces for WDAV Radio for broadcast in April of 2007. Other organizations through which Thornton has premiered/performed contemporary works include the Penn Composers Guild, the College Music Society, and the Carolina Composers Symposium

As a solo concert artist, Thornton has appeared with the Kansas City, Canton (Ohio), North Carolina (PBS broadcast), Roanoke, Raleigh, Western Piedmont, Salisbury, West Valley (AZ) and Wilmington (NC) Symphony orchestras, as well as the South Carolina Philharmonic (PBS broadcast). She has sung in six different engagements with the Winston-Salem Symphony, and has continued to perform with the Charlotte Symphony (including J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Samuel Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard). Her Carnegie Hall debut was with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, after which she was twice invited to return. She made her Lincoln Center debut singing Messiah with the National Chorale and orchestra and came back in December 2004 to perform Messiah with the Peniel Concert Choir and orchestra. Choral societies with which she has been a guest artist include the Philadelphia Chamber Chorus, the Roanoke Choral Society, the Piedmont Chamber Singers, the Charlotte Oratorio Society, the Duke Choral Society, and the Bel Canto Company.

Thornton’s interest in Baroque music led to a Fellowship with the Bach Aria Institute at SUNY Stony Brook, after which she co-produced a Bachfest’96 involving Davidson College, UNC-Charlotte, and choruses and instrumentalists from the greater Charlotte area. She performed with the Bach Aria Group during the three-day event, and was subsequently invited to step in for Bach Aria Group vocalist D’Anna Fortunato in a concert at Stony Brook, NY. She has also been a soloist in baroque concerts with the Carolina Consort at SECCA and at the International Lute Symposium, with the Haverford College Early Music Concerts, with John Mueller at Salem College, and with harpsichordist Susan Bates at Wake Forest University, among other venues.

Thornton has performed recitals through Davidson College and other organizations such as Wake Forest University, Appalachian State University, Salem College, The Cancer Center in Winston-Salem, the North Carolina NATS Fall Conference, the Weymouth Center Artist Series, the Hermitage Mansion Summer Festival, and the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.

Awards for Thornton include Second Place in the New York Center for Contemporary Opera International Opera Singers Competition, District Winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards, finalist in the Aria Italiana Competition in Philadelphia, and assignment to the Visiting Artists Roster for four years by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Thornton’s love for teaching was kindled at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, after which she was adjunct instructor at Wake Forest University and at Catholic University. She also served as part-time instructor at the Salem College Community Music School, at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (while being a graduate assistant during doctoral studies). Since joining the music faculty in 1993 at Davidson College, she has served as voice instructor, class voice instructor, and singing diction instructor, as well as producer and music/stage director of the Davidson Opera Theater Workshop. She has also been involved in special projects that include serving as the Royal Shakespeare Company Davidson Residency Vocal Coach to students performing at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She continues to seek the provision of a connection between the performance of vocal music and the Liberal Arts experience.

Contact Diane Thornton