Biography
- MM, accompanying, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
- BFA, piano performance, Carnegie Mellon University
Ellen Rissinger came to European attention in December of 2008, when she accompanied a performance of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf on one hour's notice. She spent a great part of her career in Germany, including nine years on the music staff of the Sächsische Staatsoper (Semperoper) in Dresden, Germany, returning to the U.S. full-time in 2019. Rissinger joined the faculty of Temple University in the fall of 2024, after four years on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University.
She has worked in opera houses in both the United States (with Detroit Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Kentucky Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Baltimore Opera among others) and Germany (Semperoper, Bregenz Opera Festival, Oper Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper am Rhein among others), and has given master classes with several of the summer music programs in Europe, including: The International Performing Arts Institute (IPAI) in Kiefersfelden, Germany; The International Music Festival of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy; University of Miami's summer program in Salzburg, Austria; AIMS in Graz, Austria; as well as at many universities in the U.S. including: The Hartt School; Boston Conservatory; Oklahoma City University; Murray State University, and the Boston NATS Chapter among others. In recital, Rissinger has performed with such artists as Toni Marie Palmertree, Troy Cook, Jane Henschel, Kenneth Riegel, Mirko Roschkowski and Rachel Willis-Sørensen.
As the founder of The Diction Police, she has led the way for classical singers and coaches from all over the world to hone their foreign language skills. Rissinger is fluent in German and English, is conversant in Italian, French, Spanish and Modern Greek, and continues to work on her conversational ability in Russian. Together with Toni Marie Palmertree, she also hosts the podcast So Lit Song Lit, to introduce lesser-known song repertoire and expand the art song canon.
Photo: Matthias Creuziger
Publications
Web-based handbooks on lyric diction available: singingdiction.com
Chantez ! A Handbook of French Lyric Diction for Singers
Sing mal! A Handbook of German Lyric Diction for Singers
Cantiamo! A Handbook of Italian Lyric Diction for Singers