Canadian soprano Rose Hegele facilitates artistically rigorous performance experiences that explore the extremes of human vocal and artistic expression in 20th and 21st century art music. She has been lauded for her ease with extended vocal techniques, creating “siren-like sounds that explored extremes of the vocal range” (The Boston Music Intelligencer). Specializing in contemporary opera, chamber music, and improvisation, Ms. Hegele sings to create a space to heal souls and bodies, and to allow humans to embrace all of their complexity and humanity. Highlights include world premiering the roles of “Venus,” “Doctor” and “First Lady” in Andy Vores’s Chrononhotonthologos with Guerilla Opera in 2017; leading ensemble performances in Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Kian Khalilian’s به تماشای طلوع خورشید… be tamásháye tolúe khorsheed… to watch the sun rise… (In Memory of Abbás Kiárostamí) at Clark University in February 2020; and collaborating with the Berklee College of Music’s Neither/Nor Composers’ Ensemble to perform improvisatory works by George Lewis, Iancu Dumitrescu, Richard Carrick, and Berklee’s student composers.
A collaborative tour de force, Ms. Hegele is deeply committed to working with others in diverse musical environments in the pursuit of exploring infinite sound worlds. As a soloist, she has performed with Sound Icon, contraBAND, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Sinfonietta under the guidance of Kelly Corcoran, Jeff Means, Doug Perkins, and Bruce Hangen. She collaborated twice with the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra -- voicing the role of “Joan” in an original silent film score accompanying Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, on a New England tour, and provided live vocal accompaniment to the 1924 silent film, The Phantom of the Opera, on a national tour. Ever curious about breaking down interdisciplinary boundaries, she acted as the “Guide” in choreographer Trajal Harrell’s hoochie-coochie show, Caen Amour, at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston.
In 2018, Ms. Hegele and soprano Stephanie Lamprea founded Peridot Duo: a contemporary vocal duo that uses creative programming to highlight challenging and alternative methods to vocal chamber music. She also features in Lilacs-- a voice, cello, clarinet trio that champions the work of composers from historically underrepresented backgrounds. She is a founding member of Bo Konigsmark’s In To The Light Ensemble, and has collaborated multiple times with Brian Mark’s Ensemble in Process. In 2019, Ms. Hegele and pianist, composer, and song-writer Daniel Nerger formed experimental pop duo, Augmented Returns. As a choral singer, Ms. Hegele has collaborated with the Vox Futura recording choir, providing backing vocals for the Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra’s 2019 album Legacy of the Dark Lands. She also sings with Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, et al., the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and the First Parish Church in Weston’s Senior Choir as soprano section leader.
Dedicated to service and education through artistry, Ms. Hegele was an invited Artist-in-Residence at Clark University in February 2020 and gave guest lectures to Clark’s Music History and Composition classes about Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and effective strategies for vocal writing. She was previously invited to Clark in 2019 to present a vocal masterclass and premiere of Julia Werntz’s microtonal vocal trio “kaspoleo melea” alongside Stephanie Lamprea and Katherine Growdon. Ms. Hegele co-presented a Boston Singers' Resource workshop with vocalist Felicia Chen about approaches to extended vocal techniques, and has also presented on writing for the voice to the Berklee Society of Composers.
Ms. Hegele was awarded a Post-Master’s Degree Fellowship from the Berklee College of Music in 2019. She holds a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Classical Music from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance and Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music. To further her education, she has attended multiple contemporary music festivals and institutions including the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Cortona Sessions for New Music, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, and the soundSCAPE Composition and Performance Exchange. She is a current fellow at bespoken-- music mentorship program offering support to women and Nonbinary artists in classical, contemporary, and jazz. Her significant voice teachers and mentors include Jullin O’Scheaur, Donna Sherman, Jennifer Tung, Katherine Ciesinski, Tony Arnold, Kathryn Wright and Eunbi Kim.