PAMINA

Olivia Betzen

Kansas native soprano, Olivia Betzen, is completing her Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance at the University of Kansas, and is emerging as an outstanding  fresh, young new artist on the regional opera and concert scene.

During her studies at KU, Olivia performed as a soloist with KU Opera, the University Theater, KU Opera Workshop and the KU Symphony Orchestra.  Her roles have included Lady Ella in Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan, La Pastourelle in L’enfant et les sortilèges by Maurice Ravel, Hagga in The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber, and Greta Fiorentino in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene.  She has also performed in opera scenes as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.  Most recently, she was featured in an opera gala concert with the KU Symphony Orchestra, performing in scenes from La Boheme and Carmen.

In competition, Ms. Betzen placed first in the Upper College Women’s division of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Regional Competition, received an Encouragement Award from the Kurt Weill Foundation, and was selected to sing in KU’s Undergraduate Honor Recital.  In 2008, Olivia was one of eight singers selected to participate with Orvieto Musica, a vocal summer program in Orvieto, Italy.  Her most recent concert performances were in June 2009 with Festival Internacional del la Música Española y Latinoamericana (FIMEL), a festival dedicated to the performance and dissemination of Spanish and Latin American music.

This KCO performance of The Magic Flute marks Miss Betzen’s  professional operatic debut.