Jan Wilson

Acclaimed by the press for her “deeply moving” artistry and a voice that has been lauded as “rich and colorful”, mezzo-soprano Jan Wilson is known for her skilled interpretations of solo orchestral works, choral masterpieces and chamber music. Ms. Wilson has performed with orchestras and choral societies across the US, including the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Richmond, West Virginia, Roanoke, Greenwich Village, Wheeling, Cedar Rapids, Northeastern PA Philharmonic, to name just a few, and as a soloist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York’s St. Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra, ARS Musica, and the State College Choral Society. Her performances have included collaborations with conductors of some of the finest orchestras including Lawrence Loh, Daniel Hege, David Stewart Wiley, Timothy Hankewich, Andre Raphel Smith, Joseph Silverstein, Nicholas Palmer, Barbara Yahr,  Grant Cooper, and many others.

In October 2009 and April 2010, Ms. Wilson was honored to receive two distinguished alumni award. The first from Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA, and another from the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State University, State College, PA.

Ms. Wilson’s recording of Murray Shafer’s Minnelieder on the Centaur label with the Pennsylvania Quintet was praised by Fanfare as “…an excellent addition to the shelf of contemporary American music… Wilson has a real flair for this kind of music.” Of her live performance of Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Altoona Symphony, American Record Guide praised, “Wilson’s ripe and full-throated embrace of the various texts, in the final storm at sea piling on the vibrato in the best Helen Traubel tradition; there is a sonorous aura surrounding the soloist.” She can also be heard singing Handel’s Messiah on the Duke University private label.

Ms. Wilson received her Bachelor of Music Education from Westminster College, her Master’s in Voice Performance from The Pennsylvania State University and was a recipient of a Rotary Foundation Fellowship for voice study at the Royal College of  Music, London, from which she was awarded a Certificate of Achievement. A Regional Finalist and District winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she made her debut solo recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 1994 and her solo debut at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium in December 2006. She was a Semi-Finalist in the New York Oratorio Society Solo Competition, and a National Finalist of the Federation of Music Clubs Competition. Her teachers have included Herbert Burtis, Suzanne Roy, Louise McClelland, Margaret Cable and Carol Schoenhard. Ms. Wilson resides in Manhattan, New York.