Colleen Brooks
- Teaching Faculty II, Voice & Opera Theatre
Education
DMA, Vocal Performance, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
MM, Vocal Performance, Indiana University
BS, Vocal Performance & Biochemistry, UW-Madison
Biography
Colleen Brooks, mezzo-soprano, performs in North America, Europe and Asia and has been featured in productions with all three opera companies in the Milwaukee community.
Dr. Brooks has been a member of the voice faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 2013. She completed her DMA in vocal performance at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) in Cincinnati, OH. She holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from Indiana University as well as bachelor’s degrees in both vocal performance and biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Brooks was an apprentice artist with Florentine Opera for their 2008-09 season where she performed the roles of Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) and Third Lady (The Magic Flute) and was most recently heard there as the Huntsman and Sorceress in their Venus and Adonisand Dido and Aeneas Baroque double bill. Additional roles performed include Dora Marx in the world and Thailand premieres of The Snow Dragon, Wagner’s Mezzos in The Skylight Ring, Isabelle Eberhardt in Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar, Queen Chandra Devi in the European tour of The Silent Prince, Azucena, Rosina, Donna Elvira, Hansel, Garcias in Tulsa Opera’s Don Quichotte, Nora in Vaughan William’s Riders to the Sea, Catherine in A View from the Bridge, Piramo in Piramo e Tisbe, and Mrs. Webb in a workshop performance of Rorem’s Our Town.
Dr. Brooks has had the privilege of coaching with current American composers such as William Bolcom, Jake Heggie, Thomas Pasatieri, Ned Rorem and Somtow Sucharitkul and performed with Mr. Heggie at the Grandin Music Festival in Cincinnati in 2006. She was a Wisconsin District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Competition in 2009 and a participant in San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program in the summer of 2010.
Dr. Brooks has been teaching, producing and directing opera since 2015. UWM productions include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Producer and Stage Director), Offenbach’s La Périchole (Producer and Stage Director), a collaborative production of La Clemenza di Tito (Producer) with Milwaukee Opera Theatre, and last semester's world premiere mini-operas, Who Are We?: Operatic Explorations of Identity (Producer and Stage Director). Professional productions include Trouble in Tahiti (Stage Director) and The Three Little Pigs (Stage Director) at Florentine Opera as well as Sweeney Todd at Skylight Music Theatre (Assistant Director).