Profile

Deborah Thurlow

Silver Spring , MD , USA
Professional
Classical, Musical Theatre, Soprano


Highlights & Awards

  • Soprano Deborah Thurlow has over thirty years of performing, teaching, directing and producing experience. She has performed in opera and music theatre with organizations such as Maryland Opera Studio, the Light Opera Company of Southern Maryland, The Forgotten Opera Company, The Washington Savoyards, Interact Theatre Company, Eldbrooke Players, and Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia. Her opera roles include Nanny Broome (Miss Havisham’s Fire), Hanna (The Merry Widow), Marietta (Naughty Marietta), Doreen (Tartuffe), Saphir (Patience), Pamina, First Lady, and Papagena (The Magic Flute), Josephine (HMS Pinafore), Kate and Mabel (Pirates of Penzance), Pitti-Sing (Mikado), Pertelote (Chanticleer), Pauline (The Toy Shop), and Destino (La Calisto).
  • Active in concert, Thurlow has performed with various organizations including the Friday Morning Music Club Chorale and Orchestra, McLean Choral Society, Columbia Collegiate Chorale and the New England Youth Ensemble. Her oratorio soprano roles include Messiah, Israel in Egypt and Alexander’s Feast (Handel), Magnificat (Rutter), Mass in G and Mass in A Flat (Schubert), Magnificat, Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion (Bach), A German Requiem (Brahms), Hodie (Vaughan Williams), Requiem and Coronation Mass (Mozart),Carmina Burana (Orff), Gloria (Vivaldi), The Creation, Harmoniemesse and Theresienmesse (Haydn).
  • An active recitalist, Thurlow has performed at the Chevy Chase Women’s Club, Anderson House, Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in Aldeburgh, England, Strathmore Hall, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Folger Theatre, Dumbarton House, Baltimore’s Bau House, Hood College, Old Town Hall of Fairfax, Charles Sumner Museum, and for the Sligo Music Club and Music of Mapleview Chamber Festival. She has premiered works by composers Ron Warren, Winifred Hyson, Alan Newhouse and Elaine Erickson. In 1998, she was finalist in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award Competition for the Mid-Atlantic Region.
  • Thurlow is Associate Professor of Music at Washington Adventist University (WAU) in Takoma Park, MD, teaching applied voice, music history, musicianship, and vocal related courses since 1989. She is the Director of the WAU Performance Workshop, and she has directed and conducted over twenty-five musical and operatic productions including Trial by Jury, The Marriage of Figaro, Dido and Aeneas, Into the Woods, The Mikado, Godspell, Pirates of Penzance, and Fiddler on the Roof. She assisted the university President and the Alumni Association with the presentation for the One Hundred Year Anniversary of the University in 2005, and produced two presentations to the university constituents for the President in 2006-7. In 2002, WAU President Randal Wisbey awarded her the first President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the University for her leading the refurbishment of the music building.
  • Thurlow is Vice President of The Musical Source, LLC., Washington’s premier sheet music retailer, and is the company’s expert in vocal sheet music. She also serves the vocal community as treasurer for MD/DC National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is Soloist for Sixth Church, Christ Scientist, Washington, DC and is a performing member of the Friday Morning Music Club. She has received extensive training and coaching in various stage arts, including voice, diction, acting, movement and ballroom dance styles. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of Maryland, a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Arts in music and English from Washington Adventist University.

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