American mezzo-soprano Janelle DeStefano has been praised for her “magnificently executed vocal cascades” and her “passionate delivery.” She has sung on regional operatic, orchestral and musical theater stages across the United States, performing with Ash Lawn Opera Festival in Virginia, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Westminster Opera Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, the Lyric Theatre of Santa Cruz, the Jarvis Zarzuela Festival in Napa California, and San Diego Opera. A member of the San Diego Opera Ensemble from 2002-2005, Ms. DeStefano sang the roles of Cinderella in an English adaptation of Rossini's La Cenerentola, and appeared as both Third Lady and Papagena in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Ms. DeStefano made her San Diego Opera mainstage debut as the Second Handmaiden in SDO's critically acclaimed production of Turandot, and during their 2005 International Season, she understudied the roles of Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte and Erika in Barber’s Vanessa. Ms. DeStefano’s portrayal of the gypsy, Maria, in La Alegria de la Huerta at the Jarvis Zarzuela Festival in Napa, California, (available on DVD) was hailed as the "pick of the Chueca" by Zarzuela.net. Recent roles have included Romeo in I Capuletti e i Montecchi, Mrs. Winemiller in Summer and Smoke, and the title role of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. In 2011, Ms. DeStefano will appear as Dido in Purcell's Dido & Aeneas with the Bach Collegium San Diego.
Equally comfortable on the concert stage, Ms. DeStefano has rendered dramatic performances of works such as the Bach Magnificat, the Vivaldi Magnificat, Handel's Messiah, the Mozart Requiem, Bach's B-minor Mass, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony. She was featured with the Inland Valley Symphony in Mozart’s Ch’io mi scordi te, and performed Eight Poems by Emily Dickinson by Aaron Copland with the Grossmont Symphony, and her appearances with the early music ensemble, El Mundo, for the San Diego Early Music Society and the Da Camera Society received critical acclaim. A personal interest in Zarzuela and Spanish art song, Ms. DeStefano made her European debut in 2007 in a series of public master classes with Teresa Berganza, as part of the International Festival of Interpretation of Spanish Song in Granada, Spain, and was featured as part of the 2008 Mannes Summer Institute: Art Song in Spanish in New York City. A member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Ms. DeStefano made her debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles as the alto soloist in Handel's Messiah in 2010. In 2011, she will appear with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus in Bach's The Passion According to St. Matthew, and will return to the Walt Disney Concert Hall as the alto soloist in the Messiah with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
In addition to performing, Ms. DeStefano has taught voice for more than a decade at both collegiate and community music schools, as well as in her own private vocal studio in San Diego and Los Angeles. Ms. DeStefano earned her Doctorate in Musical Arts from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where she was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society in 2010. In addition, she holds a Master of Music Degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music, from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she graduated with Porter College Honors, and was named Phi Beta Kappa. Ms. DeStefano is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), and is currently an Associate Professor of Voice at Santa Monica College (Santa Monica, CA). She makes her home in Los Angeles, with her loving husband and their daughter, Graziana.
Review: San Diego Arts: Sacred Spanish Baroque Music at the San Diego Mission
