Soprano Judith Cavendish, a native of Huntington, WV, received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Voice from Marshall University.  Her early operatic experience was  with the West Virginia Opera Theater in Charleston, in the roles of Lucy in The Telephone, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Letitia in Old Maid and the Thief,  Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Violetta Valery in La Traviata, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus and Cio-cio-san in Madama Butterfly.  Her principal voice teachers were Jane Hobson at Marshall, Helen Laird at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, and Margaret Hoswell of the Manhattan School of Music.

Ms. Cavendish was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and made her national operatic debut in 1978 with Atlanta Lyric Opera, singing the role of Senta in Der Fliegende Hollander, which resulted in a William Matheus Sullivan Foundation award. She returned to Atlanta for the role of Irene in Wagner’s Rienzi, and then to Tulsa for Helmwige in Die Walkure.  Also an accomplished concert singer and recitalist, she has performed with the symphonies of New Haven, Ft. Lauderdale, the Tulsa Philharmonic, Pittsburgh’s American Wind Symphony and the West Virginia Symphony. She has appeared as Messiah soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, in Haydn’s Creation at the Greenbrier Music Festival, and as Filia in Carissimi’s Jephthe at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC.

Ms. Cavendish just sang a faculty recital of American Art and Cabaret Songs on May 11 and will sing the soprano solos in Mozart’s Requiem for the Towson United Methodist Church in September.  She received her choral conducting training from Dr. David Castleberry, Director of Choral Activities at Marshall University, and Dr. Kathleen Shannon at West Virginia University’s Creative Arts Center, while pursuing work on her DMA in Vocal Performance and Literature from 1998-2000.  At HCC, she is a member of the Voice faculty and conducts the HCC Singers.