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The American mezzo-soprano and music teacher, Mitzi Westra, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music and religion from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her graduate work was done at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she received her Master of Music degree in 1992 and finished her DMA in vocal performance in 1995, working with such nationally renowned artists as coach/accompanist Margo Garrett and opera directors James Robinson and Vern Sutton.
Mitzi Westra was frequently seen on stage in roles such as Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Florence Pike in Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring, Amastre in George Frideric Handel's Xerxes, and Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. In 1993 she portrayed Ma Moss in the touring production of The Tender Land. While in Minneapolis, she spent four years performing, touring, and recording with a professional choral group, the Dale Warland Singers, and was alto section leader for the DWS Chamber Singers. She then moved to Beaumont, Texas, and taught private voice, diction, and music theory at Lamar University. While there, she played the roles of Lalume in Kismet and Lady Larkin in Once Upon a Mattress, as well as performing frequently with the Symphony of Southeast Texas.
Since moving to Indianapolis, Mitzi Westra has sung with Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Chamber Singers, Beecher Singers at Second Presbyterian Church, and Mon Choeur, the resident vocal chamber ensemble at University of Indianapolis. Summers are spent in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she sings with The Santa Fe Desert Chorale, a professional chamber ensemble.
Mitzi Westra currently Assistant Professor at University of Indianapolis, teaching voice and theory, as well as being the alto section leader at Second Presbyterian Church, recording for Aire Born Studios in Zionsville, and maintaining her own private studio. |
