Claudia Catania is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice and Music Theater at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.  She teaches Singing for Actors at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA), and is also the director of the Studio for Young Singers at the Opera Theater of Lucca, Italy, an annual summer program sponsored by the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music.  She also teaches in the Wichita State University summer program in Florence, Italy, and at the Chautauqua Summer Institute, where she coaches and prepares Italian diction and opera scenes for the vocal studio program.  In 2007, she will be a master teacher for the NATS Intern Program at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.   Ms. Catania has private voice studios in Manhattan and New Jersey.  She delivers Master Classes in both Broadway and classical singing, recent ones being for the KTH Voice Research Centre in Stockholm, Sweden, and the National Opera Association 2004 convention in Kansas City.  In February of 2005, she presented master classes in music theater for the National Association of Teachers of Singing at four universities in Kansas: Emporia State, Wichita State, Kansas State and Friends University, and in April 2005 for the MTNA convention in Seattle, Washington.  Her article, “Music Theater as a Technical Tool and Pragmatic Business Choice for the Classical Singer” is featured in the November/December, 2004 NATS Journal of Singing.

1990 marked Ms. Catania’s tenth anniversary with the Metropolitan Opera, where she has been heard in roles including Idamante, Hansel, Nicklausse, Maddalena, Suzuki, and Stephano.  In 1982 she was chosen by Music Director James Levine to sing as well as dance the role of The Cook in the Met’s new production of Le Rossignol, staged by John Dexter and Choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton.  She has also appeared with the companies of Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Santa Fe, Dayton, Toledo, Lake George, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Miami, and Fort Worth.   Concert credits include performances with the Denver, Baltimore, and Boston Symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, and most notably, two series of Bach concerts with the New York Philharmonic: the B Minor Masswith Erich Leinsdorf, and the Magnificat in D with Rafael Kubelik.  Ms. Catania may be heard and seen on videocassette “Live from the Met” as Ascanius in Les Troyens and Adonella in Francesca da Rimini.

A mezzo-soprano who is equally at home on the on the Broadway stage, Ms. Catania was last seen on Broadway as the villainous sister Marie in the Tony-nominated  revival of The Most Happy Fella, and is featured on that cast recording.  In the national revival of The King and I starring Stacy Keach, critic Alvin Klein praised Ms. Catania’s performance in the New York Times, noting that her “sumptuous voice is a standout in the role of Lady Thiang.  Here “‘Something Wonderful’ really is.”

Claudia Catania received a Bachelor of Music degree in voice from Temple University in 1968.  In 1995, she received a Master of Arts degree in psychoanalysis from the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, and holds a Psya D. (ABD) in that school’s Institute for the Study of Violence.  She received her Certification in Psychoanalysis from the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies in March of 2000.  Ms. Catania is very proud of the recognition bestowed on her by her native city of Philadelphia. In 1987 she received the city’s Medal of Honor, in 1994 was chosen Alumni Fellow of the Year by Temple University, and in 1998 received that University’s Certificate of Honor.  In 1997 she was named to the Board of Directors of The Voice Foundation, where she was honored as Master Teacher of the Year in 2000.  She also serves as a member of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing and the National Opera Association.  From 1995 until 2003 she was an Assistant Professor in both the Music and Theater Arts Divisions of the Boston University College of Fine Arts.  She is an Artist-in-Residence at Temple University, and also serves on the faculty of Individual University, an alternative program of study for high school students in Manhattan.  In addition to her work in the artistic world, Claudia Catania is also a communications skills consultant to Fortune 500 companies including Goldman, Sachs, & Co.  In 2008 she was the recipient of the VERA award from the Voice Foundation in Philadelphia.