STEPHANIE DEPREZ
"Freia, the goddess of youth, was elegantly sung by Stephanie DePrez."
South Florida Classical Review
BIOGRAPHY
Stephanie DePrez is an American opera singer living in Berlin, Germany.
Stephanie made her German debut in Spring 2022 at the Konzerthaus Berlin as the soprano soloist for Dvorak's "Stabat Mater" under the direction of Thomas Hennig. She sang Freia in the Miami Classical Music Festival’s production of Das Rheingold in the summer of 2022 as a Wagner Institute Fellow.
Stephanie began 2021 with an Artist Grant from The Wagner Society of Washington DC, and an offer to join the American Wagner Project, for which she sang selections of Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) and Elsa (Lohengrin) under the direction of Luana DeVol.
Stephanie's recent roles include Woglinde in Das Rheingold with the Dramatic Voices Program Berlin, conducted by Byron Knutson, and Gerhilde in Die Walküre with the Manhattan Opera Studio, conducted by Benoit Renard. In the summer of 2019, Stephanie made her Carnegie Hall debut at a sold-out concert in the Weill Recital Hall, singing the role of Santuzza in a scene from Cavalleria Rusticana.
Stephanie sang the lead role of Susan B. Anthony in Opera UCLA's spring 2018 production of The Mother of Us All, Aunt Norris in Mansfield Park, and Dorothée in Cendrillon. At the University of Notre Dame, she sang Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict, and Marthe in Gounod's Faust. Stephanie has been featured in recital with LA Opera Composer-in-Residence Matthew Aucoin and composer Mark Carlson.
Stephanie is a seasoned recitalist and collaborator. In the fall of 2020, Stephanie and mezzo Erin Marks performed the Austrian premiere of of Black American composer Florence Price's art songs during a recital of American music and jazz at Burg Bernstein in Burgenland, Austria. In 2019, she sang selections from Strauss’ “Sechs Lieder” (Brentano) with pianist Michael Sikich at Knutson Studios in Berlin. The program included the rarely-performed final song, “Lied der Frauen.” In the 2018-2019 season, Stephanie joined Steinway Artist Leann Osterkamp in their hometown of Denver, Colorado for two recitals.
Stephanie performed as an inaugural member of the UCLA Ensemble Artist Program, an educational collaboration with GRAMMY® nominated Seraphic Fire. She performed as a guest artist with Seraphic Fire during their 2017–2018 season across southern Florida in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Arvo Pärt’s Passio, and at the Professional Choral Institute at Aspen Music Festival and School. As a member of the UCLA Chamber Singers, Stephanie was a frequent soloist, and sang the role of Dido in concert.
Stephanie DePrez holds a Masters in Music in Voice from the University of California Los Angeles, where she was the recipient of the Mimi Alpert Feldman Scholarship for Voice and the Fritz Altmann Scholarship, and was the 2018 Graduate Commencement Speaker. Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Film Production/Television Studies from the University of Notre Dame and is featured on Notre Dame’s Grotto Network as the subject of the short film, “Singing Opera to Bring Beauty to the World.”
In 2021, Stephanie recorded the operatic alter-ego voice for a character in Smosh Mosh, an animated Austrian show for adults. Stephanie collaborated with the film composing duo Wazim-Murali as a soloist for the original motion picture soundtrack of Mariyam Vannu Vilakkoothi, a Malayalam film that premiered in 2020 in India. The film’s soundtrack is available on Spotify.
Stephanie loves to share opera on and off the stage. She’s spoken on the development of opera as an artform, and life as a singer, as a guest lecturer in UCLA’s Comparative Literature Department in 2020 and 2021, and for Regis Jesuit High School’s music department and journalism classes. In April of 2020, in response to the pandemic, Stephanie hosted “Opera Comedy Live!” on Facebook and Instagram, combining stand-up comedy with a family-friendly intro to opera, which has been viewed over a thousand times.
Stephanie is a trained actor. She studied at The Groundlings School and Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. She has performed stand-up comedy in LA and Denver, and is an in-demand comedian in Vienna.
Stephanie was born in Santa Monica, California and grew up in Denver, Colorado.