Susan Owen

Susan Owen, also known as Susan Owen-Leinert, is an American operatic soprano, voice teacher, and opera director born on February 9, 1959, in Salisbury, North Carolina. Her career spans Broadway performance, international opera engagements, and academic leadership, with an active performance career concentrated in the 1980s and 1990s.

Owen completed a Bachelor of Music degree at East Carolina University in 1980 and a Master of Music degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983. In 1990 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a milestone that coincided with her Broadway activity, which ran from 1988 to 1999. During that period she starred in the musical The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast and appeared in The Phantom of the Opera.

Her European career was launched through an invitation from Maestro Daniel Barenboim to the Staatsoper Berlin, where she sang Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer and Helmwige in Die Walküre. From 1995 to 1999 Owen was a full-time ensemble member of the Staatstheater Kassel under Intendant Michael Leinert, performing roles including Senta, Marie in Wozzeck, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Leonora in La Forza del Destino, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, and the title role of Jenůfa. Complete live recordings of Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung from her performances as Brünnhilde at Kassel were released on CD by Ars Production in Germany. From 1999 to 2002 she was an ensemble member of the Staatstheater Darmstadt under Mark Albrecht, where her portrayal of the title role in Richard Strauss's Elektra was recognized in the press as the Singer-Discovery of the year 2000, a role she subsequently performed at the Aalto Theater Essen, the Antikenfestspiele in Trier, Theater Münster, and the Staatsoper Hannover.

As a guest artist Owen performed leading roles with opera companies across Europe and the Americas, including the Berlin State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Semperoper Dresden, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, Theater Aachen, Theater Bonn, the Austin Lyric Opera, the Palm Beach Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Hawaii Opera Theatre, and the Virginia Opera, among others. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin she sang Isolde in Tristan und Isolde under the baton of Christian Thielemann. With the Palm Beach Opera she performed both Elisabeth and Venus in Wagner's Tannhäuser, conducted by Anton Guadagno. With the Austin Lyric Opera she sang Aida, Tosca, and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and with the Opera Orchestra of New York she performed Irene in Rienzi under Eve Queler. As Brünnhilde she appeared as a guest at Oper Bonn, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste, and Theater Kiel, as well as in concert performances in Taipei and Tokyo.

Her concert work includes Mahler's Eighth Symphony at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn and Cologne, Zygmunt Krauze's La Terre for soprano, piano, and orchestra for Radio France in Paris, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder in Darmstadt and Bratislava, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, and the Vier letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss.

Owen holds the position of Associate Professor of Voice and Head of the Vocal Arts Division at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis. She founded the Memphis Opera and Song Academy, a summer program for opera singers pursuing international careers, and has served as General Manager of The Chamber Opera of Memphis, which has produced contemporary opera works since 2007, including The Medium by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, a production subsequently invited for guest performances in Germany. In 2009 she received the CCFA Dean's Creative Achievement Award. As President of the Spohr Society of the United States of America, Owen-Leinert serves as editor of the first critical edition of the complete Lieder of Louis Spohr in twelve volumes, published by Dohr in Cologne, Germany. She has also given guest lectures, recitals, and master classes in the United States, Germany, and Cyprus.