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The American mezzo-soprano, Leste Senter Wilson, has a D.M.A. in piano and voice, the first double major presented by the University of Texas in Austin.
Lester Senter's vocal repertoire extends to over 60 roles and she has appeared with leading opera companies, festivals and symphonies across America and abroad. Among these are Spoleto, Glimmerglass, Des Moines, Dallas, New Orleans, Denver, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Birmingham, Mobile, Memphis, Shreveport, Minneapolis, Guadalajara and Dublin.
During the 2004-2005 season Lester Senter was guest soloist with the Mississippi, Shreveport and the University of Southern Mississippi Symphonies. Opera engagements included Mama Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Memphis, Zita in the Mississippi Opera production of Gianni Schicchi, and the Mother in Tales of Hoffmann with the New Orleans Opera. She also appeared in a solo Gershwin Review in Charleston, SC. In addition, she was a guest artist at Judith Zaimont’s faculty recital (University of Minnesota).
In this same season she produced and starred in a multi-media production of Robinson & Friends to commemorate the Centennial of Mississippi Artist and Writer, Walter Anderson. Robinson & Friends was first produced in Jackson then toured to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs. From Mississippi, the production went to the Smithsonian Institution, then to the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC before performances at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. This spring, Robinson returned to Mississippi with shows in Natchez and Brookhaven, and a week’s residency in El Dorado, Arkansas.
Lester Senter has recorded 11 CD's including, “The Memory is a Living Thing”, based on the writings of Eudora Welty and has just completed music of the Natchez Trace Collection, from the University of Texas Center for American Studies, for presentation by the Natchez Trace Parkway to celebrate the completion of the final stretch of the Parkway in Jackson and Natchez.
2005-2006 season brought opera performances of Katisha in the Mikado with the Mississippi Opera Buryjovka in Jenufa with the New Orleans Opera, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Inland Opera; recitals of French Love songs – Chansons d’Amour, with Copiah-Lincoln Community Art Series and Songs from the Natchez Trace Collection in Texas and Mississippi; and symphony appearances of the L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Shreveport Symphony and the Berlioz' Nuit d”Ete with the Meridian Symphony.
In 2001 Lester Senter was the recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, presented by the Mississippi Arts Commission. In August 2004 she received The Mississippi Honored Artist Award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She is represented by Anthony George Artist Management of New York. |
