Kelly Whitesell

Kelly Whitesell is a soprano from Hebron, Connecticut.  She graduated with a BM in Voice Performance and a BM in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Katherine Cieisinski.  She is currently pursuing a Master of Music with a Teaching Assistantship at the University of Connecticut.

Whitesell’s roles include Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Celie (Signor Deluso), Witch (Into the Woods), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and Chorus (La Boheme, Don Giovanni, Orfeo ed Euridice, Cendrillon).  She received first prize in the Friends of Eastman Opera Voice Competition in 2019.  Whitesell has also performed varied concert repertoire including Lowell Liebermann’s Six Songs on Poems of Nelly Sachs (Eastman Holocaust Remembrance Concert), J.S. Bach’s Mass in B-minor (Voices of Rochester), and various jazz sets in the Rochester, NY area.  

Ms. Whitesell is also Connecticut and New York teacher certified. She taught as a long-term substitute at RHAM High School and Middle School, where she taught Choir, Music Theory, and developed the curriculum for History of Popular Music.  Prior to collegiate music studies, she was granted the Ensign Darling Vocal Fellowship through the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, where she studied with Jurate Svedaite-Waller, Gwendolyn Hillman, John Torrenti, Joanne Scattergood, and Ellie Ellsworth.  She also enjoyed playing trumpet and Irish dancing.  

With gratitude for the privilege and opportunities she’s been granted, Kelly loves to share her joy for music with all.