Teacher

Shigemi Matsumoto has performed with over 30 national and international opera companies including those in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Brussels (Belgium), Wolf Trap, Portland, Kansas City, San Antonio and Tucson. Her opera roles include Mimi, Musetta, Susanna, Micaela, Norina, Adina, Pamina, Despina, Rosina, Nanetta, Abigail, Adele and Zerlina.

She has performed with more than 40 national and international symphony orchestras including San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minnesota, Houston, Lourdes (France), San Antonio and Denver. Her oratorio performances have included appearances in both the Mahler 4th and 8th Symphonies, The Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Beethoven 9th Symphony and others.

Ms. Matsumoto has given more than 300 solo recitals including recitals in the major cities of New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Tokyo, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, Houston and Dallas. She has performed with many internationally known conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Slatkin, Charles MacKerras, Arthur Fiedler, Laurence Foster, Guiseppe Patané and Kurt Herbert Adler. Some of the luminary singers she has performed with include Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Leontyne Price and Regine Crespin.

She has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts and also appears on two CDs with Luciano Pavarotti and a Christmas Album with the NBC Orchestra. She was Japanese Woman of the Year for Southern California and has been nominated to and appears in nearly a dozen different Who’s Who publications.

As a young singer, she won numerous national and regional awards and grants including First Prize in the Western Regional Metropolitan Auditions (at the age of 21) and the Grand Prize winner of the San Francisco Opera National Auditions, one year later. Her mentor, Kurt Herbert Adler, General Director of the San Francisco Opera, called her “the finest new talent of the decade”. She was the recipient of major long term financial study grants from the National Opera Institute and the International Institute of Education, both in Washington D.C.

She adjudicates vocal competitions and has judged the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, The Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competitions, The Young Musicians Foundation vocal Auditions, The Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Foundation and the Spotlight Awards. Ms. Matsumoto is the Founder and President of The Classical Singers Association (CSA), a non-profit association dedicated towards developing the performance and professional singing skills of its members.

Many of Ms. Matsumoto’s students have been among winners of various vocal competitions. Some have performed with opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Opera, San Diego Opera and Opera Pacific. Others have performed with international companies in Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Brazil and Chile. Others have been invited to summer programs in Santa Fe, Academy of the West, Glimmerglass, Salzburg, and Graz.