Courtney Crouse, Teacher and Director
Courtney Crouse recently returned from Las Vegas where she was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Nevada directing Madama Butterfly and teaching opera workshop and voice. She is a graduate of the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and an up-and-coming director; she has a highly successful voice studio in Manhattan, and is a Vocal Technician for MTCA: Musical Theater College Auditions.
Ms. Crouse attended Indiana University for both her Master’s and Doctoral degrees where her focus was Vocal Performance, Stage Direction of Opera and Music History. There she studied under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed director Vincent Liotta. Ms. Crouse was assistant director to Mr. Liotta for The Mikado at the IU Opera Theater. She was also music director for A Chorus Line and Falsettos for the Indiana University Theater Department, led graduate-level workshops in opera, was chosen to direct scene programs and created an “Acting for Singers” workshop for graduate students. It was at this time that she first felt the calling to help young singers develop solid acting skills to accompany sound vocal techniques.
As a singer Ms. Crouse has been mentored by Metropolitan Opera star, Carol Vaness and the vocal pedagogue, Paul Kiesgan. Her students have had leading roles on Broadway and with companies such as New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera and the Estates Theatre in Prague. As Visiting Lecturer at the University of Las Vegas she was a member of the voice faculty teaching voice lessons, directing the opera, and teaching an opera workshop for undergraduates that culminated in a scenes performance.
Ms. Crouse’s directing experience stretches from the light operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan to more recently the heavy dramatic works of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly where Brian Alvarez of Las Vegas Arts and Culture said, ”The performance could not have been more perfect and this rendition left me with a smile and of course a few tears trickling down my face.”
Ms. Crouse currently lives in New York City where she works as a freelance director, performs, maintains an active voice studio and is in demand as a dramatic coach.
Courtney Crouse, Mezzo-Soprano
Young American mezzo-soprano, Courtney Crouse is a graduate of the acclaimed Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. During her tenure at Indiana University she became a champion of new music, and she has performed in several premieres. In 2008 Ms. Crouse sang the role of Victoria Corelli, a morphine addicted mother, in the collegiate premiere of Bolcom’s A Wedding as well as Mrs. Gibbs in the world premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town, both at Indiana University. During her time at IU Ms. Crouse also portrayed Columbina in Busoni’s twentieth century opera Arlecchino, Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, and the Second Lady in The Magic Flute. Other roles include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Ischia on the island of Ischia, Italy during the summer of 2007, Musetta in La Bohème and the title role of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. She was also a young artist with Fort Worth Opera.
Ms. Crouse, a versatile performer, is noted for being an accomplished actress as well as singer. During the summer of 2008 Crouse was seen as Sharon Graham in the Tony Award Winning play Master Class with Heritage Repertory Theater. In addition, Ms. Crouse has also performed such musical theater roles as Amalia in She Loves Me, Anna Held in Tintypes, Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music, Connie Miller in 1940s Radio Hour, and the Step-Mother in Into the Woods. She was also in the critically acclaimed performance of Bernstein’s Mass as the Blues Singer at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and she is the featured soloist with the Nate Sutton Jazz Quintet.
Concert solo performances include Copland’s In the Beginning, Freund’s Six Songs from Passion with Tropes and Fear and Trembling Blues, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Bernstein’s Chicester Psalms, and the Mozart C Minor Mass.
Courtney Crouse is a native of Fort Worth, Texas, and a graduate of Texas Wesleyan University and the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Ms. Crouse studies voice with world-renowned soprano Carol Vaness.
Currently Courtney performs with a number of organizations in the New York area. She is a featured soloist with the New York Virtuoso Singers, sings with the Collegiate Chorale who perform regularly at Carnegie Hall, as well as with The Coterie (a group devoted to the development of new opera) and will be performing in the new musical about the life of Dorothy Parker being written for her by playwrights Angela Gant and William Bryan, lyricist Royce Vavrek and composer Andrew Gerle.
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Press Reviews
“Madama Butterfly could not have been more perfect, and this rendition left me with a smile and of course a few tears trickling down my face.”
Brian Paco Alverez, las Vegas Arts and Culture
“…there are also moments of great lyrical beauty in A Wedding. I was especially moved by the sadly drug addicted mother of the groom, Courtney Crouse’s aria of her first love for the groom’s father, an Italian waiter.”
George Walker, WFIU
“Courtney Crouse lets both sides of her talent, acting and singing, shine.” ~Terrance McNally’s Master Class
Clare Aukofer, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA
“A noteworthy performance was given by Courtney Crouse as Josephine Corcoran, the heroine, whose voice easily reached the highest notes in the opera and whose changes in mood were extremely convincing.” ~H.M.S. Pinafore
Adam Sedia, Indiana Daily Student