Susan Ruggiero
Barbarina

     Soprano Susan Ruggiero has been described as having a voice that is “stunning and pure”—State News, East Lansing, Michigan, and the Boston Globe noted her performance at Tanglewood Music Center’s 2005 Festival of Contemporary Music saying: “It is preposterous to speak of the ''potential" of youngsters like...Susan Ruggiero-Mezzadri...they are already artists.” Recently Ms. Ruggiero has appeared with Mississippi Opera, Opera South, Blue Lake Opera, Wildwood Opera Theatre, and Kentucky Opera. She has sung the roles of Pamina in Die Zauberflˆte, Frasquita in Carmen, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Elizetta in Il Matrimonio Segreto, Cupid in Orpheus and the Underworld, Despina in CosÏ fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Siebel in Faust, Musetta in La Boheme, Little Red Riding Hood in Little Red Riding Hood, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Seamstress’s Son in The Happy Prince, Mrs. Sem in Noye’s Fludde, High Priestess in Aida, among others.
      Ms. Ruggiero is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. She is a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions District Winner, First Place Award Winner in Shreveport Opera’s Singer of the Year Competition, Third Place Award Winner in Mobile Opera’s Scholarship Competition, Finalist in the Palm Beach Opera Advanced Division Vocal Competition, the recipient of a University of Michigan School of Music Fellowship, The Joseph Frank Spada Award in the Connecticut Opera Guild Young Artists’ Scholarship Competition, Tanglewood Vocal Fellowship, Marie Mountain Clark Scholarship, and the Budres Foundation Award from Michigan State University School of Music.
     In addition to numerous performances in the United States as an opera singer and recitalist, Ms. Ruggiero has performed in concert at the Universidade Federal do Paran·, Escola de M·sica et Belas-Artes do Paran·, and the City Public Library in Curitiba, Brazil. Ms. Ruggiero also soloed with the PUCPR (Pontifical Catholic University of Paran) Orchestra performing Mendelssohn’s Salve Regina for a nationally televised broadcast concert.
     Ms. Ruggiero holds a double master’s degree in voice and flute performance from the University of Michigan, and she received her bachelors in music performance from Michigan State University. She is currently a doctoral student at Louisiana State University and studying with tenor Robert Grayson.