CATHERINE McDANIEL, mezzo-soprano, has performed major operatic roles in Europe and the United States. Her professional debut occurred during the Festival Lyrique de Belle-Île-en-Mer, France, where she appeared as Niklaus in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Mercedes in Carmen. Dr. McDaniel also performed the role of Clarina in Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio in the Teatro Accademico in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy. Among her other roles are Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Dorabella in Così fan tutte (multiple productions), Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors (multiple productions), Lola in Cavalleria rusticana, and the title role in Carmen. Local operatic appearances include Madeline Mitchell in Heggie’s Three Decembers and the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Painted Sky Opera, the inaugural performances of the Southern Plains Opera Ensemble (Così fan tutte and Pride and Passion: An Operatic Evening—both for past seasons of the Rose State Live concert series) and repeat engagements with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s Discovery Concert Series.

As mezzo soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, she has sung with Maestro Murry Sidlin in his A Defiant Requiem, in addition to performances with Canterbury Choral Society, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra. Further, McDaniel has appeared in performances of Handel’s Messiah with numerous orchestras in Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri. Other oratorio credits include Honegger’s Le roi David, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and the Oratorio de Noël by Saint-Saëns. In May of 2009, she sang the Bach B Minor Mass with Canterbury Choral Society and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and she performed as mezzo-soprano soloist in Bradley Ellingboe’s Requiem in the spring of 2017 – the fifth time she had sung this work.

Prior to joining the voice faculty of the Bass School of Music (where she has taught studio voice and lyric diction since 2008), Dr. McDaniel spent over a decade as a member of the voice faculty at Oklahoma Christian University. Her current and former students maintain active performing careers on Broadway and national tours, and in companies such as Portland Opera, Sarasota Opera, the Seagle Music Colony, Bay View Music Festival, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, and Music Theatre of Wichita. They include finalists in auditions for the Metropolitan Opera and the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and a large number have pursued advanced voice degrees at the New England Conservatory, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, the University of North Texas, and the Moores School of Music—University of Houston. She holds the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in voice, both from Stephen F. Austin State University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Oklahoma, where her dissertation was an analysis of Tales Not Told, a song cycle composed for her by Edward Knight. She was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in both the Midwest and Texas Regions and a winner of the Advanced Division of the Texoma Regional Auditions of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Dr. McDaniel is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, Mu Phi Epsilon, Phi Kappa Phi, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.