Biography - English

Martha Scheffel

Biography - English

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Seattle Opera, 1995

The soprano Martha Scheffel studied school music and voice at the University of Michigan as well as piano, psychology and English literature. After graduating with an honors Bachor degree, she earned a year’s scholarship to study voice at the State College for Music and Theater in Munich with Prof. Hanno Blaschke and Prof. Margot Gerdes. In 1970 she studied further for her Masters at New England Conservatory in Boston. At the Wiener Kammeropera (1971), she sang the role of the Queen in “Una Cosa Rara”by Vicente Martin y Soler. 1974-1976 she was engaged in the Operastudio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as a lyric-dramatic soprano for supporting roles. After the birth of her two sons, she worked fürther as a free-lance soloist. On a tour of Japan in 1990, she sang the part of Michaela in Bizets “Carmen” in Asahikawa, Hokaido. 1994 she sang as solist in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys “Elias” in the Space center of Tokio and in a Duo Art Song Evening with John de Haan from San Francisco. In the production of Wagners “Ring des Nibelungen “ at the Seatle Opera in 1995, she sang the roles of Freia, Ortlinde and Gutrune and understudied for Sieglinde.

From 2000-2005 she taught voice at the International Master Classes in Prague and sang a solo Art Song Concert at the Mozart Museum, Bertramka. In July, 2010 she will resume teaching in the Master Classes. Contact ( in English), Tomas Fric: tomas.fric@gmail.com. In Munich she was a soloist in the Gospel-Ensemble “Spirit Alive” under Alfred McCrary from 1999-2000. She is presently voice coach and soloist for two gospel choirs. with “Albert C. Humphrey and His Voices of Gospel (since 2003), also on on tour to the USA. Link: htpp://www.albert-c-humphrey.de) ;and with “Cillis Gospelchor” in Munich, since 2005 with which she was a guest soloist at the Edinburgh Festival 2006. Link:htpp://www.cillisgospelchor.de Further vocal and musical development has always had high priority for Martha Scheffel: Until 1995 she continued to take voice lessons from Prof. Margot Gerdes (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich); since then she has studied with Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox in Bayreuth. Between 1976 and 1995 she coached at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, with Dietrich Villbrandt and RicharTrimbourne, among others. She presently appears as soloist for various concerts (opera, art song evenings, sacred music, gospel/jazz) in USA, Germany and Austria. In 1979 she opened her own music school, “Musikstudio Scheffel”, in which she still teaches children music education including “Orff-Schulwerk” and Kodaly, as well as recorder flute and guitar.