Newsroom

CORVALLIS - The Oregon State University Department of Music will offer a master class featuring pianist and vocal coach Mary Dibbern on Friday, Nov. 1. The class will begin at 7 p.m. in Benton Hall 303.

Several singers from the OSU Vocal Studies program will perform, and will receive individual coaching from Dibbern on technique and interpretation. The public is invited to observe, free of charge.

An American pianist, Dibbern has resided in France since 1978. She works internationally as a vocal coach and accompanist for operatic productions, recordings, recitals and competitions. She is a frequent guest at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Centre de Formation Lyrique of the Opera National de Paris as well as on the main stage of the Opera National de Paris and at the operas of Nice, Bordeaux, Lyons, TMP-Chatelet, the Opera-Comique, the Opera of Toulouse, the Theatre Municipal de Lausanne (Switzerland), the Circulo Portuense de Opera (Oporto), the Hawaii Opera Theatre, and the Shanghai Opera House (People's Republic of China).

She was in charge of musical and language preparation for the first French-language productions in China of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette and Bizet's Carmen.

She has worked on the musical preparation of French, Italian and German operas and recordings in close collaboration with the world's finest conductors. She has accompanied vocal recitals in the USA, Europe and Japan - notably at La Scala, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, the Opera-Comique, Radio France and the Opera Royalde Versailles.

Her recital recordings include Melodies de Jacques Leguerney released by Claves (Switzerland), a CD produced to honor the composer's 90th birthday celebration in Paris and which won the Grand Prix du Disque; Offenbach au Menu on the Maguelone label and Melodies de Jacques Leguerney, Vols. I and II (LPs) for Harmonia Mundi France.

Dibbern has music degrees from the University of North Dakota and Southern Methodist University, where she graduated summa cum laude with a master of music in accompaniment. She studied vocal recital repertoire in Paris and Vienna with Nadia Boulanger, Dalton Baldwin, Gerard Souzay, Pierre Bernac, Erik Werba, Jorg Demus and Hans Hotter. In Vienna, she received the Franz Schubert Prize for Lieder Accompaniment.

For more information, call 541-737-4061.