Performing
PERFORMING:
Click here for current performance calendar.
Soprano Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers’ career has included opera, musical theatre, concert, recital, and cabaret performances, new music and early music, and professional ensemble work. She has performed as a soloist in New York, London, Vienna, Prague, Nashville, Amarillo, along with various locations in the Midwest, upstate New York, and in Canada.
Performances, recordings and stage directing credits at home and abroad include American Composers’ Alliance Festival of American Music (NYC), Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Republic & Austria), National Polish Radio Symphony, Society for New Music, MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Toledo Symphony, Toledo Opera, Pro Musica of Detroit, Camphill Village of Copake (NY), Toledo Museum of Art, International Symphony of Port Huron (MI) and Sarnia (Ontario).
Her wide-ranging opera roles include Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Annina (A Night in Venice), Lady Billows (Albert Herring), both Prioresses (at different times!) in Dialogues des Carmélites, Arnalta (L'incoronazione di Poppea), both Mme. Armfeldt and Mrs. Nordstrom (again, many years apart!) in A Little Night Music, First Lady (The Magic Flute), Greta Fiorentino (Street Scene), the Witch (Hansel and Gretel) and at least seven Gilbert and Sullivan heroines, including title and leading roles in Patience, Princess Ida, Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore, Trial by Jury, The Gondoliers, and Ruddigore. She has appeared with Ohio Light Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Toledo Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and Michigan Lyric Opera, as well as with smaller companies around the Midwest and Northeast.
At home in Michigan, she performs frequently at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, and is a longtime member of the professional choir at the historic Mariners’ Church of Detroit.
Unsettling news of a disturbing nature; please remain calm:
Recently Jane has changed her major back to the French horn again, after a +/-40 year hiatus. She has taken advantage of her semi-retirement from full-time teaching to enroll in the graduate performance certificate
degree program at BGSU, where she is fortunate to be studying with the magnificent Andrew Pelletier.
Some years ago she and her BGSU colleague,
Geoff Stephenson, another former hornist, formed a performing duo which they named The Horns of Hubris. Feel free to LIKE and FOLLOW the
Horns of Hubris on Facebook.
In addition, she has played with
Ann Arbor Civic Band (AACB) since 2019. This venerable and worthy organization offers free outdoor concerts in Ann Arbor during the months of June and July.
