Diane Penning – Soprano
Coloratura Diane Penning is equally at home in classical and pops repertoires.
She has performed in the symphony pops genre with more than thirty orchestras nationwide and in Canada. Recent symphony pops include engagements with the Phoenix, Greensboro, San Antonio, Calgary, Pueblo, Las Cruces and Billings symphonies.
Musical theatre credits include Cunegonde in Candide, Marian in The Music Man, Amalia in She Loves Me, Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, and Maria in the concert version of West Side Story as well as “the grouch” in Robert Kapilow’s Green Eggs & Ham (she has performed this role more than 7 times over the last 25 years with the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Lollipops series).
Oratorios include those by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Ralph Vaughn Williams, David Fanshaw, Carl Orff and others with such organizations as the Apollo Chorus in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and the Kalamazoo Bach Festival.
Opera roles include Adele in Die Fledermaus, Frasquita in Carmen, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Musetta in La Bohéme, Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana, Pamina, Papagena and Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute.
In addition to symphony engagements, Diane enjoys concertizing with pianists as well as performing her own solo shows accompanying herself both on piano and guitar. She is a standout in a house concert, especially when performing with her son, Henry Koperski (Alan Cumming’s music director).
Ms. Penning has also toured England and Wales with “The Hildegard Singers” a four-woman ensemble performing the chants of Hildegard of Bingen and others. Professional recordings include Phantom Phantasy with the Grand Rapids Symphony; Christmas Festival with the Czek National Orchestra, Everything Under the Sun with pianist Rich Ridenour, Simply Gershwin with pianist Paul Bisaccia, and Sacred Space, with Composer/Performer Nicholas Palmer. My Favorite Things- A Celebration of the Music of Julie Andrews, has been performed with the Adrian, Ashland, Holland, Pueblo, the Southwest Michigan and the Calgary Philharmonic symphonies.
Of her work, critics have been enthusiastic:
Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk of the Grand Rapids Press wrote “As a classically trained soprano, Penning’s version of George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ was all you could ask for. Yet she easily adapted to a Broadway ingenue to sing ‘Somewhere’ from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and a dance-band singer for Cole Porter’s ‘Easy to Love.’”
Bill Seeback of The Muskegon Chronicle wrote “Guest artist Diane Penning…with a spectacular performance, in costume, of Jacques Offenbach’s “Doll Song” from The Tales of Hoffman. A beautiful high register, fluid obbligato lines all precisely executed. For me it was worth the price of the ticket.”