Bonnie Draina

Soprano

Instructor of Studio Voice and Vocal Pedagogy

Email: bonnie.draina@colorado.edu
Office Location: Room E252, Imig Music Building
Office Phone: 303-492-5866
Mailing Address: 301 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0301

Soprano Bonnie Draina has wide-ranging interests in both pedagogy and performance. An avid interpreter of contemporary art song, she performed new songs of Lee Hoiby on Colorado Public Radio in 2006; she has since returned to the KVOD studios to record American composers' settings of Emily Dickinson, and to preview the world premiere of Sayaka Ishiguro's Hushaby Songs with pianist Mutsumi Moteki. Operatic roles range from Mozart's Despina to Widow Glock in the world premiere of Sara McKinnon by Randall Shinn. As a winner of the 2006 Notes at 9,000 Emerging Artist Competition she has been featured in several collaborative productions, most recently performing selections from Granados' Tonadillas with Helander Dance Company at the Mad Cow Arts Festival. She made her orchestral debut with the Bethany (KS) Messiah festival in 2008, closely followed by Mozart arias with the Boulder Philharmonic and Stravinsky's Les Noces at CU-Boulder. In December 2009 she will sing Vivaldi's rarely-heard motet In turbato mare irato and Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate with Boulder Chamber Orchestra.

Dr. Draina teaches studio voice and vocal pedagogy at University of Colorado-Boulder, and is a respected pedagogue specializing in Body Mapping and somatic education of singers. Her research on training kinesthesia earned her an invitation to the University of Indiana, where she presented a webcast lecture as part of the New Vocal Educators Symposium in 2007. In 2008 - 2009 she taught Body Mapping workshops for Opera Colorado young artists and for university music programs in Canada, Hawaii and California, and presented at symposia in Hawaii and Newfoundland. She received her certification in Body Mapping under Barbara Conable and is an active member of Andover Educators, working to promote the health and abilities of musicians through somatic and sensory training; at CU-Boulder's College of Music she plays an integral role in the growing Musicians' Wellness Initiative. Dr. Draina holds DMA and MM degrees from the University of ColoradoBoulder and Westminster Choir College.  Before moving to Boulder she taught at Princeton Theological Seminary and Drew University in her native New Jersey.

Undergraduate Voice Audition Requirements (PDF)
Graduate Voice Audition Requirements (PDF)