Patrizia DeCarmine Conte has received international acclaim for her combination of vocal beauty, superb musicianship and commanding stage presence in a repertory of over forty opera, concert and oratorio roles.
A native of Long Island, New York, she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Voice Performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She was also a full tuition scholarship recipient for operatic studies at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. She made her major debut as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana in 1978 in Miami, earning her great acclaim: “A beautiful and powerful dramatic voice and a superb actress”. The late Maestro Alfredo Silipigni of the New Jersey State Opera considered her Santuzza one of the finest he had ever heard.
Her 1980 Town Hall debut was described: “A voice of velvet.” A finalist in the San Francisco and the Chicago Lyric Opera Auditions, the Concorso per Le Voci Verdiane in Busseto, Italy and the Concorso Lirico in Parma, Italy, Ms. Conte was a protégé of the late Metropolitan Opera soprano Beverly Bower. The late Jerome Hines acclaimed hers as a “Stignani" voice, recalling the great Italian mezzo. Critics have praised her “glorious, cello-like tones…we have not heard singing with more beauty, warmth and joyousness.”
She has appeared at L'Opera de Montreal, the Teatro Verdi di Busseto, the Kennedy Center, the Dallas Opera, Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Opera, Wolf Trap, National Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Opera Pan Americana de Miami, Opera Delaware, Opera Omaha, Annapolis Opera and many others, singing under the baton of such conductors as Robert Shaw, Nicola Rescigno, Joseph Rescigno, Alfredo Silipigni and Rudolf Kruger in many productions, including Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Traviata, Tosca, Susannah, The Consul, Il Trovatore, Aida, Andrea Chenier and The Daughter of the Regiment.
She has appeared in concert as featured soloist in the Bach Great Mass in b minor; Handel Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Mendelssohn Elijah, Verdi Messa da Requiem, Michael Haydn Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Rossini Stabat Mater, and many other works with the Metropolitan Chorus, Oratorio Singers of Westfield, the Morris Choral Society, the Easton Choral Arts Society, the Babylon Chorale and the Essex Chorale.
She debuted in March, 2009 in Cavalleria Rusticana with the Annapolis Opera, Maestro Ronald J. Gretz conducting. She also debuted with the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey in August, 2008 under the baton of Maestro Robert W. Butts as Juno/ Ino in Semele of Handel and scored a triumphant return in August, 2009 as the plaintive Cornelia in Giulio Cesare: "Patrizia Conte's Cornelia set the quality standard for the performance. The depth of her emotional artistry in the lamenting 'Priva son' left this reviewer in tears." (Peter Stevens, The Alternative Press).
In October, 2011, she debuted at the George Washington Masonic Memorial Concert Hall in Alexandria, Virginia, in the Rossini Stabat Mater, Maestro Barry S. Hemphill, conductor. She then was invited to make her Kennedy Center debut in December 2011 in the Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and 200-voice chorus, again under the baton of Maestro Hemphill. Patrizia Conte also has subsequently appeared with the Annapolis Opera in Rigoletto and in concert (2013) and in Faust (2016).
Patrizia Conte was appointed to the Vocal Faculty of the Conservatory of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD in 2015 where she taught Italian lyric diction, style and song repertoire. She also served as Professor of Voice at Montclair State University and Kean University, NJ. A master voice teacher, she is in demand as consultant, clinician for master classes and adjudicator.
A native of Long Island, New York, she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Voice Performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She was also a full tuition scholarship recipient for operatic studies at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. She made her major debut as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana in 1978 in Miami, earning her great acclaim: “A beautiful and powerful dramatic voice and a superb actress”. The late Maestro Alfredo Silipigni of the New Jersey State Opera considered her Santuzza one of the finest he had ever heard.
Her 1980 Town Hall debut was described: “A voice of velvet.” A finalist in the San Francisco and the Chicago Lyric Opera Auditions, the Concorso per Le Voci Verdiane in Busseto, Italy and the Concorso Lirico in Parma, Italy, Ms. Conte was a protégé of the late Metropolitan Opera soprano Beverly Bower. The late Jerome Hines acclaimed hers as a “Stignani" voice, recalling the great Italian mezzo. Critics have praised her “glorious, cello-like tones…we have not heard singing with more beauty, warmth and joyousness.”
She has appeared at L'Opera de Montreal, the Teatro Verdi di Busseto, the Kennedy Center, the Dallas Opera, Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Opera, Wolf Trap, National Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Opera Pan Americana de Miami, Opera Delaware, Opera Omaha, Annapolis Opera and many others, singing under the baton of such conductors as Robert Shaw, Nicola Rescigno, Joseph Rescigno, Alfredo Silipigni and Rudolf Kruger in many productions, including Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Traviata, Tosca, Susannah, The Consul, Il Trovatore, Aida, Andrea Chenier and The Daughter of the Regiment.
She has appeared in concert as featured soloist in the Bach Great Mass in b minor; Handel Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Mendelssohn Elijah, Verdi Messa da Requiem, Michael Haydn Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Rossini Stabat Mater, and many other works with the Metropolitan Chorus, Oratorio Singers of Westfield, the Morris Choral Society, the Easton Choral Arts Society, the Babylon Chorale and the Essex Chorale.
She debuted in March, 2009 in Cavalleria Rusticana with the Annapolis Opera, Maestro Ronald J. Gretz conducting. She also debuted with the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey in August, 2008 under the baton of Maestro Robert W. Butts as Juno/ Ino in Semele of Handel and scored a triumphant return in August, 2009 as the plaintive Cornelia in Giulio Cesare: "Patrizia Conte's Cornelia set the quality standard for the performance. The depth of her emotional artistry in the lamenting 'Priva son' left this reviewer in tears." (Peter Stevens, The Alternative Press).
In October, 2011, she debuted at the George Washington Masonic Memorial Concert Hall in Alexandria, Virginia, in the Rossini Stabat Mater, Maestro Barry S. Hemphill, conductor. She then was invited to make her Kennedy Center debut in December 2011 in the Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and 200-voice chorus, again under the baton of Maestro Hemphill. Patrizia Conte also has subsequently appeared with the Annapolis Opera in Rigoletto and in concert (2013) and in Faust (2016).
Patrizia Conte was appointed to the Vocal Faculty of the Conservatory of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD in 2015 where she taught Italian lyric diction, style and song repertoire. She also served as Professor of Voice at Montclair State University and Kean University, NJ. A master voice teacher, she is in demand as consultant, clinician for master classes and adjudicator.