Soprano Edith Bers, chair of the Juilliard Voice Department from 1991 to 1995 and from 2006 to 2018, has served on the Juilliard faculty from 1985 until her retirement as Emeritus in 2018. She is currently on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and Bard College Conservatory Graduate Program in Vocal Arts. She has taught for the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program and Curtis Institute of Music. She has taught at various summer festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Orford Music Academy (Canada), and Bel Canto Institute (Florence, Italy).
Ms. Bers has given master classes as part of the Symposium on the Care of the Professional Voice, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, the Juilliard Hong Kong Master Classes, the Korean Broadcasting System, and Classical Singing and New York (CSNY).
Bers attended Brandeis University and received BS and MAT degrees from Columbia University. Among her voice teachers are Jennie Tourel, Maria Callas, Ellen Faull, Oren Brown, and Beverley Peck Johnson. Her singing career has spanned opera, recital, oratorio, and orchestra appearances in the U.S. and abroad.
Her students perform with major opera companies, orchestras, and festivals around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Canadian Opera Company, Vienna Staatsoper, Hamburg, Paris, and Munich opera houses, and the Glyndebourne, Ravinia, and Tanglewood Festivals. Her students have won first place in major voice competitions, including the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, Opera Index, Naumberg International, Giulio Gari, Gerda Lissner and the esteemed Richard Tucker and Beverly Sills Awards.
Edith Bers has served as an adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (Brussels, Belgium), and the Concours musical international de Montréal in Voice.
Edith Bers is generously sponsored by Abzac Canada Inc.
Photo: Paul Sutton
