Rachel and Elsie Inselman, American Songbook

Rachel Inselman, soprano is a Professor of Voice at the University of Minnesota Duluth.  Ms. Inselman has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as internationally with symphony orchestras including the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, Paris Sinfonetta, Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Toledo Symphony, Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, and the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.  Her concert repertoire includes soprano soloist for the Brahm’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasie and Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Requiem and Exsultate Jubilate, Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Poulenc’s Gloria, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Vaughan William’s Sea Symphony.

 

As a recitalist, Rachel has appeared in Palermo, Italy; San Jose, Costa Rica; Istanbul and Izmir Turkey; Tatui, Brazil; Thunder Bay and Windsor, Canada; Uvalde, Texas; Stillwater, Oklahoma; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota.

 

Ms. Inselman’s opera roles include Hanna in The Merry Widow, Tatiana in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Micaela in Carmen, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Marzelline in Fidelio, Despina in Così fan tutte, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, and Miss Silverpeal in The Impresario.

 

As an opera director, Ms. Inselman has staged Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte and Verdi’s La Traviata.  She has served as musical director for Le nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Die Fledermaus, Hansel and Gretel, La Bohème, La Traviata, L’elisir d’amore, and the musicals Sweeney Todd, Kiss Me Kate, The Baker’s Wife and Chicago, as well as vocal coach for Damn Yankees, Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? and Merrily We Roll Along.

 

Rachel has been a guest master clinician at numerous performing arts high schools, colleges, universities and conservatories both nationwide and abroad, and was a voice teacher for four summers at the Sieur Duluth Summer Opera Festival.  As an accomplished pianist, she has played for several musical theatre productions and was invited in 2010 to Istanbul, Turkey to teach the art of accompanying musical theatre in a weeklong workshop.

 

Ms. Inselman was named a winner at the 1996 Metropolitan Opera District Auditions for the fourth consecutive year, was a third place finalist at the Met Regional Auditions in 1995 and 1996, and was awarded first prize in the 1996 Schubert Club Scholarship Competition.  Rachel completed her Artist Diploma Degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she also received her Master’s Degree, and she earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Oberlin College.

 

In 2010 and 2011, Rachel and her mother, Elsie extensively coached with American Art Song composer Richard Hundley to prepare a comprehensive recital of his works that they took abroad to the Tatui Conservatory in Brazil in April 2013 and the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Brisbane Australia in July 2013. She returned to the 2017 ICVT conference in Stockholm, Sweden to present on a panel about teaching transgender singers.

 

Upcoming engagements include a trip to France for two recitals between the Lyon Conservatory and UMD voice students, where Rachel will accompany the performances. She will also be presenting at the National Association of Teachers of Singing conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on a panel about teaching transgender singers in 2018.

Mezzo soprano and pianist, Elsie Inselman was a prominent singer in the Great Lakes area, having soloed many times with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in Detroit, at Meadowbrook, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. She has sung with such conductors as Antol Dorati, Fruebeck de Burgos, Eduardo Mata, Sarah Caldwell, Peter Maag and Horoyuke Iwaki. She was a frequent guest artist in recitals and concerts, and has performed with almost every orchestra in the Detroit Metropolitan area as well as Toledo, Flint, Saginaw, Traverse City and Windsor symphonies.

 

Ms. Inselman’s operatic performances include roles with Michigan Opera Theatre, Piccolo Opera, the Opera Association of Western Michigan and Michigan Lyric Opera. Her recordings include several releases with the Detroit Concert Band under the baton of Dr. Leonard B. Smith and her collaborations with Dr. Smith include three performances at the Blossom Festival in Akron, Ohio.

 

A native of North Dakota, Elsie Inselman holds a Master’s Degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany, where she performed in concert and opera. She was twice a district winner in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, receiving the Donovan Award from the Detroit Grand Opera Association and was an Adjunct Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Windsor, Ontario. Ms. Inselman also found time to work at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills, MI as the director of the adult choir, one of the quartet soloists and as an assistant to the Cantor in the Music Education Department. She began piano study at the age of six and has been playing ever since.