Simone Vigilante
Voice Faculty
Lauded by the Asheville Citizen-Times as a “beautiful dramatic soprano capable of some awesome fireworks," Simone Vigilante has appeared in recitals and competitions, with opera companies and orchestras, throughout the United States and Europe. Ms. Vigilante has lived in the Asheville area since 2001. While here, she has sung leading roles with The Modern American Music Project, Asheville Lyric Opera, and Opera Creations, performed as soloist with the Asheville Symphony, Asheville Symphony Chorus, Asheville Choral Society, Asheville Area Piano Forum, and serves as a regular Cantor/Soloist at St. Mary’s Church.
As one of the leading sopranos in the area, Ms. Vigilante has also been a soloist with Asheville Village String Quartet, Allegro Music, the Asheville String Trio, the Asheville Symphony Chamber Players, Echo Early Music, and the Brevard Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed as a guest artist on the concert series of St. Matthias, St. Matthew’s, Blue Ridge Community College, Montreat Friends of Music, White Horse Black Mountain, as a guest artist at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies for NC Stage and the Grand Bohemian Hotel, and performed on fundraising concerts for Asheville Area Piano Forum, Western North Carolina Aids Project (WNCAP), Hope to Home and Thrivent.
Ms. Vigilante’s recent performances and roles include Bloody Mary (July 2014, Asheville Lyric Opera’s South Pacific); Buttercup (March 2014, Opera Creations’ H.M.S. Pinafore); Soprano Soloist for Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (November 2013, Asheville Symphony Chorus, Asheville Choral Society, and Asheville Symphony); Sister Rose (April 2013, The Modern American Music Project’s Dead Man Walking); Katisha (March 2013, OC’s The Mikado); Soprano Soloist for Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem (November 2012, Asheville Symphony Chorus and Asheville Symphony); Mother Abbess (April 2012, ALO’s The Sound of Music); Miss Silverpeal and the Queen of the Night (February 2012, OC’s Impressario and The Magic Flute); Ruth (October 2011, OC and Christ School’s Pirates of Penzance); Soprano Soloist for Dave Brubeck’s Mass: To Hope! A Celebration and Christopher Theofanidis’ The Here and Now (March 2011, Asheville Choral Society); the Duchess (February 2011, OC’s The Gondoliers); and the Witch (October 2009, ALO’s Hansel and Gretel).
Born in Rochester, New York, Ms. Vigilante attended the Eastman School of Music beginning her studies in piano. She furthered her studies in vocal performance with Dr. Marilyn Taylor at the (University of) North Carolina School of the Arts (BM 1997). Ms. Vigilante immediately continued her studies at America’s largest operatic training ground, Indiana University of Bloomington, where she worked primarily with the world-famous and Classical Singer Magazine’s 2010 teacher of the year Virginia Zeani, and with one of America’s leading vocal pedagogues, Paul Kiesgan (MM2000 and doctoral work started 2001). After graduating from Indiana University Ms. Vigilante traveled to Europe where she studied and performed with La Scala coach and accompanist, Enza Ferrari.
Besides a successful career in singing, Ms. Vigilante has been teaching voice throughout the United States for over 18 years. She is a popular teacher, with studios at Mars Hill University, Western Carolina University, Academy for the Arts, and La Bella Voce Studio of Simone Vigilante in Asheville. Ms. Vigilante sings secular, sacred, classical, and operatic repertoire in Latin, Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, along with studying and performing musical theater. She is a certified member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), North Carolina Music Teachers Association (NCMTA), and Asheville Area Piano Forum (AAPF). In 2010, she became a co-founder of Opera Creations, a creative performing and teaching company that seeks to train young singers, providing them (along with local professional singers) a chance to perform on stage. Lovers of comedy and music may have seen her also as one of OC’s Dueling Sopranos or in a musical revue.