First-place
winner of the New York Vocal Artists' Competition, coloratura soprano Suzanne
Galer has played the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute
with many companies including Whitewater Opera of Indiana, Sorg Opera
of Ohio, Indiana Opera Theatre of Bloomington, The Lake Charles Symphony (LA),
and Italy's Rome Festival.
While in New York, Galer made her CAMI and Weill
Hall debuts and sang with numerous companies including the Long Island Lyric
Opera, The Opera Company of the Hamptons, The New Rochelle Opera, The Rockland
Opera, and The West Park Chamber Society. Galer was a regional finalist in
the Metropolitan Opera Competition and a national finalist in the Chicago
Lyric Opera Young Artist competition. She also won prizes in the U.S. Information
Agency and Queens Opera competitions.
Galer's career has spanned the United States:
she has performed the role of the Governess in Britten's Turn of the Screw
with The Inspiration Point Festival (AK), The Mother Abbess in Puccini's
Suor Angelica with the Bel Canto Northwest Festival (OR), Najade in Ariadne
auf Naxos with Shreveport Opera (LA), supporting roles with Cincinnati
Opera (OH), and sacred solos at both California's Crystal Cathedral and New
York City's Marble Collegiate Church. Her oratorio performances include Honeggeur's
King David with the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Orff's Carmina Burana
with both the Jacksonville Masterworks Chorale (FLA) and the Lake Charles
Symphony (LA).
Galer holds the Doctor of Music and Master of
Music degrees in vocal performance from The State University of New York at
Stony Brook and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hope College of Holland, Michigan.
Now on the music faculty at Indiana Wesleyan
University, Galer has performed the role of the Dew Fairy in Hansel
and Gretel with the Indianapolis Opera, and the role of Serpina in La
Serva Padrona with The Crossroads Opera Company in Midwestern towns including
Anderson, Muncie, and Marion (IN), and Ft. Recovery (OH). She also has performed
with the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra (IN), The Manistee Chamber Orchestra
(MI), and the Cambridge Music Society (OH).
Galer is the director of Opera Workshop for
Indiana Wesleyan University, where she teaches diction and voice. Before going
on to obtain her doctorate, Galer was the Director of Opera for Sam Houston
State University of Huntsville, Texas, and directed the Camerata for Centenary
College of Shreveport (LA). Galer's operatic staging credits include Mozart's
Magic Flute, Menotti's Hand of Bridge, Mollicone's Face on
the Bar Room Floor, Mozart's Impressario, Barab's Game of Chance,
Ten-Minute Opera by Root, Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore,
numerous opera and Broadway scenes, and Strauss's Die Fledermaus, Act
II.
In
2001, Galer founded, and continues to direct, the Manistee Bel Canto Studios
in Manistee, Michigan.