Soprano KELLY WHITESELL, is excited to return to the Connecticut Lyric Opera stage. Whitesell engages audiences with her dramatic and vocal versatility in a range of roles, recently as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in her Italian debut. This past season, she performed at Hartford’s Bushnell Theater as the other of Giovanni’s women, Donna Elvira, as well as Kate Pinkerton (Madame Butterfly) with Teatro Liciro D’Europa, and as a featured soloist with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra as a winner of their competition. A proponent of artistic collaboration, Whitesell enacted shadow puppetry while singing original music as Europa (Taurus), and sang as Queen of the Night and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) with UConn Puppet Arts. Additional credits include Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) with CLO, two modern opera buffos: Beautiful Bridegroom and Speed Dating Tonight!, Elle in Poulenc’s La voix humaine, Monica (The Medium), Witch (Into the Woods) and many musical theater and chorus credits. She graduated with a BM in Voice and in Music Education from Eastman School of Music, where she received First Prize in the Friends of Eastman Opera Voice Competition. She retains an MM in Voice from University of Connecticut, and continues her doctoral studies under the tutelage of Rod Nelman. Whitesell spreads the joy of music as a Teaching Assistant at UConn and an instructor at Thames Valley Music School. She enjoys membership and solo work with Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford. Whitesell is grateful to be making and performing music.