Teacher

American mezzo-soprano Alexis Davis-Hazell is an experienced clinician, presenter and singing actor of opera, concert and musical theatre repertoire in the Southeast United States. From Mme. de Croissy of Poulenc's Dialogue of the Carmelites and Dritte Dame of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, to Frugola of Puccini's Il Tabarro and the High Priestess of Verdi's Aida, her performances have earned accolades for the size and quality of her instrument, and the dramatic intensity she brings to supporting characters. Alexis has performed in over 130 productions of Porgy and Bess, throughout Germany, Russia, Poland, Greece, Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland and North America. She brought stage experience to the studio and the classroom in Phoenix, Arizona for fourteen years, and ran an independent studio while serving on faculty at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, GateWay Community College and Grand Canyon University teaching applied voice, musical theatre workshop and music humanities courses including Survey of American Music and Rock Music in Culture. These experiences inspired her to pursue scholarship and lecture on the impact of Blackface Minstrelsy on contemporary voice performance practice, and the accessibility of repertoire by African American women opera composers. Alexis continues to perform a diverse repertoire and relishes the opportunity to sing contemporary works. She co-presents concerts blending classic and contemporary music, through production company Jazzoperetry, Inc. co-founded with her husband, Earl Hazell. Under their auspices, Alexis was headline artist presenting the first full concert of African American spirituals and gospel music at the Alfonso Ortiz Tirado Opera Festival in Álamos, Sonora, Mexico. Recent mainstage appearances include Mississippi Opera’s Shattering the Glass, and The Hilarious World of Gilbert and Sullivan, Cincinnati Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess, and the July 2020 broadcast of Cincinnati Opera’s 100th anniversary special on Cincinnati public television. She originated the role of Rachel in the world premiere of Joseph Landers’ opera Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, with the Tuscaloosa Symphony in partnership with The University of Alabama Opera Theatre, broadcast on Alabama public television in September 2020.

Dr. Davis-Hazell currently serves on the faculty of The University of Alabama School of Music as Assistant Professor of Voice and Lyric Diction. Her continuing research centers on the improvement of curricula for lyric diction pedagogy and Russian art song literature studies tailored to beginning Anglophone singers, based on a synthesis of clinical phonetics for speech pathology and second language learning theory. Dr. Davis-Hazell holds degrees in Vocal Performance from Temple University (B.M. Hons.) and Arizona State University (M.M., D.M.A.)