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The American soprano and music pedagogue, Jana Holzmeier, began voice lessons at age 14 as a student of Kathleen Dawson. She received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Northeast Missouri State University (re-named Truman State University) in 1985, and subsequently graduated in 1988 from Indiana University with a Master’s Degree in Vocal Music Performance , studying with Dale Moore. In 1993 (according to LinkedIn) or 2004 (according to NWU), she obtained a Doctoral of Musical Arts Degree in Vocal Music Performance from The University of Texas at Austin, where she was a student of Darlene Wiley. Her treatise topic there was "Selected Songs of Vincent Persichetti." She has been named an Emerging Young Artist at the Victoria Bach Festival in Victoria, Texas, and was a Young Artist/Apprentice for the Austin Lyric Opera.
Jana Holzmeier has been praised by reviewers as a “delightful performer,” possessing “celestial” sound, “impeccable phrasing and a keen sense of character.” The Austin American-Statesman described her as a performer who could “stir up a few goosebumps with her vocal power and expression; just when you thought she had reached her limit, she found something in reserve.” She has appeared as a soloist onstage at Avery Fisher Hall with New York’s Westside Orchestra. She has also performed with Abendmusik-Lincoln, the Lincoln Symphony, the Voices of Omaha, the Axtell Area Oratorio Society, Lincoln Civic Orchestra, Lincoln Municipal Band, the Victoria Bach Festival, the New Texas Festival, Chamber Music Quad Cities, the Quad City Symphony, and the Quad Cities Mozart Festival. Her orchestral repertoire includes Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Copland’s Old American Songs, Johannes Brahms’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Her oratorio roles include George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, Johannes Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, the Francis Poulenc’s Gloria, J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244), St. John Passion (BWV 245), and Magnificat (BWV 243), and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. On the operatic stage, she has appeared as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Laurie in The Tender Land, the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Mary in Randall Thompson’s The Nativity and Nedda in Pagliacci.
Jana Holzmeier is currently an Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Vocal Activities at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. She teaches Applied Voice, Liberal Arts Seminar, Vocal Literature, Voice Skills for the Actor, and Vocal Pedagogy. She is an active performer in the community and region, and she has a community music studio of singers from Lincoln, Hickman, Papillion, and Nebraska City. |
