Ellen Denham -- Bio

Ellen Denham

Biography

Soprano Ellen Denham has appeared as a soloist with Indianapolis Opera, Piedmont Opera Theatre, Longwood Opera, the Moravian Music Festival, the Durham Savoyards, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble. She has also been featured as a soloist with Duke University Chapel Choir, with which she toured England. A frequent soloist in the central Indiana area, her recent credits include the soprano solos in Mozart's Requiem at Earlham College, the role of Martha Sheldon in the Indianapolis Opera production of The Crucible, and the soprano solos in Bach cantatas with the Indianapolis Baroque Singers and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra at Christ Church Cathedral. She is a past winner of the Encouragement Award from the North Carolina District Metropolitan Opera Council.

A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Ms. Denham received her B.M. in vocal performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts. She went on to receive her M.M. in vocal performance with honors from New England Conservatory of Music, where she was a member of the Opera Studio and appeared in numerous productions and workshops. She has completed additional training in Modern Dance and Laban Movement Analysis at Butler University and further vocal studies with William Shriner, Professor Emeritus at Indiana University.

Besides singing, Ellen Denham's other professional interests include writing, dramaturgy, and stage direction. She has written for Classical Singer magazine, and her fiction and reviews have also appeared in various online and print media including A Writer's Choice Literary Journal and Mythic Circle, the Literary Magazine of the Mythopoeic Society, and Amon Hen, the Bulletin of the Tolkien Society. She has presented papers at the C.S. Lewis and Friends Colloquium at Taylor University and at Mythcon, the annual conference of the Mythopoeic Society. In 2006, she attended the Odyssey Writing Workshop.

In 2003, Ms. Denham served as librettist and production dramaturgist for Butler Ballet's critically acclaimed production of The Willow Maiden, based on her original story and featuring an original orchestral score by composer Frank Felice. She received an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission for her work on this production, and is currently working on a novel based on the same story.

Ellen Denham teaches voice at Earlham College, Fairview Studios, and the Center for Performing and Visual Arts of Broad Ripple High School. A member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), she has been teaching since 1991. Ms. Denham has given master classes to students at institutions such as Duke University and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Her students have appeared with school and community choirs and groups including the Indianapolis Children's Choir, Christ Church Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, Indianapolis Opera Chorus, Indy Jazz Fest, Cantabile!, and Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre and have received awards from Indiana NATS and voice scholarships to colleges and universities.

Ms. Denham regularly performs in the chorus and supporting roles with Indianapolis Opera. She has also sung with the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble, where she performed opera roles and has been a regular soloist in concerts such as Music! Opera! Dance! with Dance Kaleidoscope. She can be heard on Sundays as the Cantor at historic St. John Catholic Church in downtown Indianapolis.

Ellen is married to Stephan Laurent, Professor in the Dance Department of Butler University and former Artistic Director of the Butler Ballet. In addition to their work on The Willow Maiden, they have collaborated on two other dance works which he choreographed and for which she performed: Roeslein, using Schubert songs with texts by Goethe, performed at Clowes Hall as part of the Butler Ballet Midwinter Dance Festival in 1998, and Der Tod und das Maedchen, incorporating the Schubert song and string quartet of that name, performed in July 2000 and February 2001.

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