Bio
Opera News lauds Jeni Houser’s performances as “commanding and duplicitous, yet also vulnerable. She has a bright future above the staff.” She made debuts with the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Dallas Opera as Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, a role she has also sung to great acclaim with the Grand Teton Music Festival with Donald Runnicles conducting, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Cincinnati Opera, Central City Opera, and Kentucky Opera. Houser recently made her role debut as Lucia di Lammemoor in a return to Madison Opera and repeated the role at the Seoul Arts Center. She returned to the Dallas Opera stage as the title role in The Golden Cockerel. With the Wiener Staatsoper, she made her international debut as Frantzi in the world premiere of Staud’s Die Weiden, after which she joined the company for its productions of Die Zauberflöte and Trojahn’s Orest.
Houser has performed on operatic stages including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Madison Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Austin Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Virginia Opera, and Fort Worth Opera. Favorite opera roles include Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, La Charmeuse in Thaïs, Amy in Little Women, Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music, and Susanna in both Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Portugal’s The Marriage of Figaro. She has performed in further world premieres of Moravec’s The Shining and Peters’ Companionship and commissioned songs from David von Kampen and Scott Gendel. On the concert stage, she has performed Orff’s Carmina Burana with Phoenix Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Madison Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Atlanta Ballet. She has also performed Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation, several Bach cantatas, and a wide variety of art song repertoire.
Houser holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin (DMA voice performance), the University of Nebraska (MM voice performance), and Lawrence University (BM music education and BA English). She made her directorial debut in The Marriage of Figaro at Viterbo University and has conducted masterclasses and residencies at schools including Northwestern University, Texas Tech University, Viterbo University, Edgewood College, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and was formerly Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Notre Dame.
