About
New York City native, and Italian-American soprano, Alea Vernon is pursuing her Bachelors degree at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Elliot Madore. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Pre-college Division; and an alumna of The Ensign-Darling Fellowship at The Bushnell Theatre in Connecticut.
Ms. Vernon has been a featured soloist with organizations appearing in renowned theaters such as Carnegie Hall, Paul Hall, The Bushnell Theatre, Peter J. Sharp Auditorium, Seiji Ozawa Hall, and The New World Center. This season, Ms. Vernon could be heard throughout the greater Ohio region as soprano soloist in the Lord Nelsen Mass by Hayden, the Nunes Garcia Requiem, Messiah, and Mozart’s Requiem.
While at CCM, Ms. Vernon has been involved with projects spanning multiple genres including art song, opera and musical theater. She debuted as Eurydice in Orpheus in The Underworld, as well as Die Königin der Nacht. Ms. Vernon is particularly passionate about twenty-first century music. This spark ignited when she did her first world premiere in October of 2018, in The Midwest Composers Symposium. Since then, she has been involved in several premieres in both opera and concert repertoire. This winter, Ms. Vernon premiered the song “Take This Job and…” by Evan Mack, as a collaboration with Cincinnati Song Initiative, and will debut the cycle in the spring of 2023. Additionally, she workshopped Revenants, a new opera, written by Eli Lucas with the Scandinavian Society.
Prior to beginning her studies at CCM, Alea spent her summers at The Casentino Voice Festival in Popi, Italy, New York Summer Music Festival, The Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and The Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. In the summer of 2019 Ms. Vernon was a member of The Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center. In 2020, she was scheduled to be a Colburn Fellow at Songfest in Los Angelos, California, as well as join the Berlin Opera Academy, in Germany, prior to the pandemic.
Ms Vernon is a National YoungArts Winner, Second Place Winner in SongSlam, a competition that commissions new works, a 3Arts Scholarship Winner, First Place in The American Prize Women in Song, Pre College Division, First Place in The American Prize Women in Opera, Pre College Division, and a two time George London Scholarship Recipient.
Above all. Ms. Vernon is an advocate for classical music, wishing to bring classical music and opera to all walks of life. She believes there is a place for opera in everyone’s life, be it performing, being part of the creative process or enjoying it from the audience. During her free time, Ms. Vernon works with schools creating educational performances and outreach programs, hoping to pass on the spark.