Biography

Elizabeth Hynes, a faculty member at the USC Thornton School of Music since 1995, has taught at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2003. She was elected to the Aspen Music Festival Corporation in 2005 and has served as a New Horizons Faculty, endowing three students for three years study at the Aspen Opera Theater Center.  Recently, she has added the Oberlin in Italy program in Arezzo, Italy to her summer teaching schedule, offering Thornton singers the opportunity to study abroad. 

With a national reputation as a vocal teacher and mentor, Hynes adjudicates regularly for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and is in demand as a masterclass presenter around the country.  Her students are consistently among winners of major competitions, and appear frequently with professional opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States.

Recent vocal performances included Britten’s Les Illuminations, the War Requiem and Górecki’s Third Symphony with the composer conducting.  She has performed in major opera houses around the world, singing some of opera’s most demanding roles such as: Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Mimi in La Boheme, Marguérite in Faust and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier.  Performances of Mozart roles such as Susanna, Pamina and the Countess in the PBS Live from Lincoln Center broadcast of Le Nozze di Figaro gained public and critical acclaim. Her European debut at the English National Opera was as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. 

A sought-after concert artist, Hynes has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Georg Solti and the orchestras of Cleveland, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles, among others. She has sung with the orchestras of Madrid, Barcelona, Vancouver and New Zealand and with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna on two American tours.