Pina Mozzani’s career on the operatic, dramatic and musical stage has taken her throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Her repertoire of nearly three hundred productions includes such varied roles as Carmen, Dorabella, Charlotte and Azucena, for which she has received particularly high marks from the critics. Mozzani has cultivated a reputation as an enthusiastic and knowledgeable interpreter of twentieth-century operatic repertoire. To that end, she has performed in the world premiers of nearly a dozen works for such companies as the Philadelphia Opera Company and Stadttheater Pforzheim. Critics have been especially entranced with her interpretations of Mahler and Strauss, which have "combined the dramatic timbre of her mature mezzo tone with the elegance of a spinning legato line." Recent concerts include a recital series of American musical theater and twentieth-century art songs in China, and a future invitation to Romania for concerts of American music.
PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A native of Philadelphia, Mozzani completed graduate studies in voice at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome after graduating from Ohio State University. It was with the Rome Piccola Opera that she made her American professional debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. as Venus in Cavalli’s L’Egisto. Since, she has gone on to work with Andre Previn, Richard Woitach, George London, Gian Carlo Menotti, and many others. Her gift for languages is prolific enough that she has served as the official translator for several opera companies, and collaborated with Dino Yannopolis on the translation of Rossini’s Otello for its American premier, in which she also sang a leading role.
Prior to coming to the Wichita State University, Pina Mozzani taught for seven years at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and eight years on the voice faculty at New York University. Mozzani’s students have been placed in some of the finest graduate programs including The Julliard opera program, the Pittsburgh opera program and Manhattan School of Music. Her students have performed professionally in both opera and musical theater all over the world, including venues such as the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway. She is currently doing research in the incidence of TMJ among singers and brass players, and in the physiological differences between "belt" voice and "classical" vocal production.
