Dr. Michael Sells, tenor

Michael Sells is currently professor of music in the Jordan College of Fine Arts of Butler University where he was dean of the college from 1992-2001. Prior to that he was associate dean of the school of music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and chair of the vocal arts department and coordinator for USC Opera during his 20-year tenure. Areas of teaching expertise include voice, vocal literature, vocal pedagogy, opera literature, and musical theatre history and literature.

As a tenor soloist, Dr. Sells enjoyed a 25-year performance career, having appeared with numerous symphony orchestras (including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Spokane Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony, and the South Carolina Symphony), with opera companies (San Francisco Spring Opera and Central City), and with professional, community, and festival choruses nationwide (including the Roger Wagner Chorale, the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Carmel Bach Festival, the Texas Bach Choir, and Music of the Baroque in Chicago) under the direction of conductors such as Robert Shaw, Michael Tilson Thomas, Helmut Rilling, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, and Raymond Leppard. His recordings include Britten's War Requiem (Klavier Records), Verdi's Falstaff (Deutsche Grammophon), and song cycles of Benjamin Britten (TR Records). Dr. Sells also appears in a videotaped production of Britten's Curlew River produced by PBS. Additionally, he has published reviews and articles in the Opera Quarterly, International Dictionary of Opera, the Bulletin of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and The Sondheim Review.

Dr. Sells's former students have graced the stages of The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera (Covent Garden), Glyndebourne Opera, and English National Opera, among others.

E-mail: msells@butler.edu

E-mail: msells@butler.edu