Vanessa Gentzschein is a soprano of Nicaraguan and Swedish heritage from Miami, FL. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts.
She has worked as a member of the Florida Grand Opera chorus, participating in “Aida”, “La Sonnambula”, “Samson et Dalila”, and “La Boheme” and will be participating in this season’s production of “Nabucco”. She has also worked as a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago chorus where she was engaged for “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “Boris Godunov”, “Lohengrin”, and “Aida”. Vanessa has performed the roles of Rosalinda in “Die Fledermaus”, the titular role of Suor Angelica with the Intermezzo program and in Italy with the Italian Operatic Experience, the First Lady in “Die Zauberflote”, Geraldine from “Barber’s A Hand of Bridge”, and Mimi from “La Boheme”. She has performed as Fiordiligi and Ariadne in scenes from “Cosi fan tutte” and “Ariadne auf Naxos” respectively. Additionally, she performed and covered the soprano solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
She won 1st place with Chicago NATS in 2008 and 2010 and was a finalist in the Chicago chapter of the Classical Singer Competition in 2010. She was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2007 Florida district Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
In addition to her love of opera, she has a love of teaching and is currently the Music Director at St. Hugh Catholic School in Coconut Grove.
