Soprano Elza van den Heever, a native of Johannesburg, South Africa is currently in her second year at the San Francisco Opera Center’s Adler Fellowship Program, where she will be appearing in the San Francisco Opera’s production of Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by music director, Donald Runnicles. While an Adler Fellow, she has also made her San Francisco recital debut to critical acclaim in the 2006 Schwabacher Debut Recital Series. Most recently, Ms. van den Heever performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand” with the San Francisco Symphony in their 2005-2006 Season and on their European tour in Luxembourg and Lucerne, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. She made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony in the beginning of the season as the soprano in Morton Feldman’s I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstenberg, also conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2005, she appeared as Sa Femme in Milhaud’s Le Pauvre Matelotwith the San Francisco Opera Center and in 2006 as Donna Anna in the Lincoln Theater’s production of Don Giovanni in Napa Valley, CA.

Recent concert engagements have included performing with the Ives Quartet as the soprano soloist in Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 and in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Sacramento Choral Society. In 2004, she made her debut with the new chamber music ensemble Earplay, singing the world premiere of Sappho Fragments by San Jose, California composer Richard Aldag. In 2002 she made her debut with Philharmonia Baroque singing the role of Clara in Beethoven’s Incidental Music from Egmont. Ms. van den Heever made her debut in 1999 with the National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa, singing solos in the Requiems of Duruflé and Fauré.

A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Ms. Van den Heever has appeared in Conservatory productions as Tituba in The Crucible, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, the Muse and Niklause in The Tales of Hoffman, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Leonora in Il trionfo dell’onore, Florence Pike in Albert Herring, Athamas in Semele, Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea and Mrs. Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief.

As part of the Merola Opera Program, Ms. van den Heever sang the role of Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia in 2004, and in 2003 Mrs. Nolan in The Medium. In 2003, she appeared in the title role of Ariodante with San Francisco’s Pocket Opera and in 2003 in the title role in Serse and as Dido in Dido and Aeneas with the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI).

Ms. van den Heever was a 2003 Pacific Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions.

Sigh, UNFORTUNATELY I cannot find a clip of her singing, but I assure you she's incredible. I think she's going to be a great star in the opera world. If I can find a video or a sound clip of her singing, I'll surely post it.

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