Lori Sen

Style: World; Pop; Opera; Jazz; Folk; Gospel; Rock; Classical; Musical Theatre

Title: Mezzo-soprano & Adjunct Voice Faculty

Bio:

Turkish mezzo-soprano and Fulbright alumna Lori Şen is known for her versatility in many vocal genres, including opera, art song, musical theatre and jazz, as well as for her teaching and research interests in vocal literature, voice pedagogy and voice science. Dr. Şen regularly collaborates with musicians and composers across a variety of genres, and has performed in Turkey, Europe and the United States. Her recent performances include solo recitals, jazz performances and operatic roles, which include Angelina in La Cenerentola with Opera Nova as well as Marta in Iolanta and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi with Westminster Opera Theater. She was also featured as the alto soloist in the latest performance of Mozart’s Requiem with the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia.

A leading expert of the Sephardic art song genre, Dr.Şen is the first ever to catalogue this repertoire that comprises Western classical settings and arrangements of the traditional Sephardic folk literature. She is also the first to create a Ladino diction guide exclusively for singers who would like to sing Sephardic songs in their original language. Over the past few years, she has introduced this genre to audiences through her solo recitals in addition to her lectures on the history, language and culture of the Sephardim as well as the elements and stylistic features of Sephardic music. Since 2018, she has presented her research at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City, the 14th and 16th Barcelona Festival of Song in Barcelona, Spain, the Eighth Annual Judeo-Spanish Symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Jewish Museum of Maryland in Baltimore, and several organizations in Washington, D.C., including the Yunus Emre Institute, the Sephardic Heritage International DC and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Meanwhile, her voice pedagogy research has been presented both at The Voice Foundation Symposium and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Dr. Şen completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice performance at the University of Maryland, College Park, and received her Master of Music in voice performance and pedagogy at Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, NJ, as a Fulbright grantee. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, in addition to a Bachelor of Music degree in voice and a Master of Education degree in physics education from Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir, Turkey. Dr. Sen currently teaches as a Lecturer of Voice Pedagogy at the University of Maryland School of Music and an Adjunct Voice Faculty at the Peabody Preparatory of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She also has an active performing and teaching schedule in the United States and abroad, and serves as an ambassador for the Barcelona Festival of Song.

Voice Type: Mezzo-soprano

Music Styles Taught: World; Pop; Opera; Jazz; Folk; Gospel; Rock; Classical; Musical Theatre

Availability: I am available as a performer; I am currently accepting private students; I am available as a clinician or presenter

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