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The American soprano, Delcina Stevenson, studied privately with Lotte Lehmann, at the Music Academy of the West with Martial Singher and Gwendolyn Koldofsky. She graduated from Kansas University and based her career on the West Coast since moving there in 1960. In 1964 she was the winner of the Young Muscians Foundation of Los Angeles annual competition. She attended the Mereola Program and in 1966 won the San Francisco Opera Auditions.
Delcina Stevenson made her debut with the San Francisco Fall Opera Company in 1966 and became an active member for three seasons. She has also sung with the Western Opera Theatre, Portland Opera Co., appeared at the Ojai Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Hollywood Bowl, and Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, and with such orchestras as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (with Zubin Mehta), San Diego Symphony (where she stepped in with only six hours notice for Teresa Stratas as Desdemona in a concert performance of Verdi's Otello with James McCracken and Cornell MacNeil), and appears frequently with the Camerata of Los Angeles. Her W.A. Mozart roles include Pamina, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and the Countess in Figaro. She was the recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Award in 1969. In 1967, she appeared at the Carmel Bach Festival under Sandor Salgo.
Delcina Stevenson was a member of the Los Angeles Vocal Arts Ensemble, formed in 1979. They made a recording called "A Little Sondheim Music" on the EMI Angel Label in 1984. She sings the high soprano lines in a few group numbers and the Green Finch and Linnet Bird solo from Sweeney Todd. There was also a recording of Rossini's Sins of My old Age for Nonesuch.
Other LP recordings featuring Stevenson include: J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 210 and W.A. Mozart's concert aria Ah se in ciel benigne stelle (K.538) and W.A. Mozart's Vespers K 321 (both on Crystal Records under H. Vincent Mitzelfelt); Antonio Vivaldi's Chamber Mass (Crystal records). She can also be heard on the soundtrack of the movies Dr. Zhivago and Garden Isle. |
