Stephanie Schoenhofer is an up and coming young mezzo soprano from Lima, Ohio. She has impressed audiences with her "smoky mezzo"(artseen), intelligence, and inherent musicality.

 

In the 2017 season, Stephanie makes her début at the Lyric Opera of Chicago singing the role of the second Handmaiden in Puccini's Turandot. Earlier in the season, Stephanie returned to Des Moines Metro Opera, and performed the role of Mrs. Segstrom and covered the role of Desirée Armfeld in Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

 

In 2016, Stephanie performed the roles of Badessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica with Opera West, and Anna in Jonathon Dove's Tobias and the Angel with NANOWorks in Cincinnati.

 

Past seasons include engagments with Des Moines Metro Opera's summer festival as an Apprentice Artist where she made her company and mainstage debut as Sr. Lillianne in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, while also covering Ragonde in Le Comte Ory by Rossini, Sarasota Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Seagle Music Colony 

 

Stephanie completed her master's degree at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Performances there include Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Fortuna in Monteveredi’s L’incornazione di Poppea, and Dryad in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos.

 

Stephanie received a Bachelor of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where she sang the roles of Làpak, the Dog in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Apollonia in Haydn’s one act opera, La canterina, and Public Opinion in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld.

 

While completing her bachelor's and master's degrees, Stephanie performed many concert and Oratorio works including solos in Bach’s Magnificat, the Agnus Dei in Bach’s B minor Mass, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasie Debussy's  Les Trois Chansons de Charles d’Orléans, and Rossini’s La Petite Messe Sollnelle.

 

Other notable concert and Oratorio performances include the alto solos in Handel's Messiah, the Pie Jesu in the Duruflé Requiem, and the 2nd Movement of Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil. 

 

In October of 2012, Stephanie competed in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition in Wisconsin, and received an Encouragement Award.