Jane Dressler

Soprano Jane K. Dressler has distinguished herself as a performer of song, chamber music, and oratorio. She completed degrees in voice performance from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Indiana University, University of Iowa, and the University of Nebraska. Jane has sung more than eighty performances in Ohio, including recitals at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Toledo Museum of Art and the Ariel Theatre. A proven instructor of voice, her students have won first prizes at state levels (2009, 2000) and regional (2009, 2002) levels through the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

As a performer/researcher, in June 2000, Dr. Dressler presented the national premiere of the song cycle, My Antonia, written for Dressler by American composer Libby Larsen. The song cycle was heard in a lecture recital titled “Willa Cather: Her World of Music.”  The national premiere took place at the International Seminar on Willa Cather 2000 in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The project received funding from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Nebraska Arts Council, and the Nebraska Humanities Council. Dressler has sung My Antonia in six different states, including Iowa, Missouri, and Michigan. As well, the soprano performed the cycle as part of the prestigious Sixth Festival of Women Composers (2001) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 

Additionally,  Dr. Dressler has received Kent State University grants to complete research with Cather-related materials at the Chicago Historical Society and the Newberry Library (2009, 2003, and 2002). She has published articles about Cather and classical singing in Journal of Singing (2008) and Teaching Cather (2005).