ABOUT MS. RINGO
Jennifer Ringo is known as an accomplished language coach and teacher of vocal diction.
Jennifer Ringo is known as an accomplished language coach and teacher of vocal diction. She has been teaching since 2004, when she returned from Europe, where she had lived for over two decades. She has prepared productions for the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Cincinnati May Festival, the Atlanta Opera, The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the Steans Institute at Ravinia and the Aspen Opera Theater. This season she returned to Indiana University as French diction coach for their production of Dialogues of the Carmelites and as English coach for Seattle Opera's production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw. This fall she will continue her collaboration at the Herb Albert School of Music/UCLA, as Spanish Coach for Carla Lucero’s world premiere of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, as well as the Santa Fe Opera as English coach for the world premier of Poul Ruders The Thirteenth Child.
Ms. Ringo taught French, German, English and Italian vocal diction at Bard College Conservatory of Music from 2005-2008, and assisted in preparing their opera productions. At the Aspen Opera Theater she coached opera productions, and taught weekly diction classes for several years. She has taught at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Montreal, in conjunction with Joan Dornemann, the Summer Opera Tel Aviv, and the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists Program at Los Angeles Opera.
She has given Master Classes at USC Thornton School of Music, UC Santa Barbara, Aspen Opera Theater, Arizona Opera and American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. Her versatility with languages and keen musical ear, led her to Decca records, collaborating with, amongst others, Renee Fleming. She has worked Anna Deveare Smith, as a dialect coach as well as several Broadway performers .
As a soprano, her international career spanned more than three decades. She sang leading roles with the San Francisco Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Grand Theatre de Genève, Houston Grand Opera and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, among others. Her concert work includes collaborations with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Aspen Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Institute Orchestra, In Europe she appeared with the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Orchestre Nationale de France both in Paris and at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Dresden Philharmonic Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. In Spain she has appeared with the Orquesta Simfonica de Barcelona, and the symphony orchestras of Oviedo, Granada and Palma de Majorca.
Known for her portrayal of the protagonist of Poulenc's La Voix Humaine, James Oestrich of the New York Times wrote "Ms. Ringo virtually inhabited the role of the lone character...(she) sang strongly, though 'singing' seems a meager term to describe her many varieties of expression, physical as well as vocal, ranging from manic outbursts to melting lyricism." Ms. Ringo performed this role in five cities for the Poulenc Centenary In Spain (Oviedo, Granada, Palma de Maiorca), Nice (France) and the Aspen Music Festival, and New York City, as well as a televised performance with the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne, Germany.
As narrator, Miss Ringo recorded Spanish narration for Strauss' Don Quichotte and Dvorak's The New World Symphony (One Voice/ One Chicago) for the Ravinia Festival and the Chicago Public Schools. She has narrated Debussy's Chanson de Bilitis at the Aspen Music Festival and Poulenc's Barbar at the Cincinnati May Festival.
Born into a bilingual family, Jennifer Ringo's proclivity for languages and linguistics revealed itself as a child and parents nurtured her interests. She is fluent in French, Italian and Spanish. Her Cuban mother taught French and Spanish in the Iowa City school system, and her father, a Spanish professor, was head of the Spanish Department at the University of Iowa.
A keen musician, she began violin and piano studies at nine years of age and continued playing in the University of Iowa orchestra through college. Ms Ringo holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Univerity of Iowa, and continued graduate vocal studies at the Juilliard School. She was a scholarship student at the Aspen Music Festival and participated in the San Francisco Opera Merola program as well as two years in the Houston Grand Opera Studio. She was a winner of the Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions , and has subsequently served as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Ms Ringo studied diction privately with Nico Castel, Robert Cowart, Janine Reiss and Pierre Vallet. She maintains vocal studios in New York and Los Angeles.
Born into a bilingual family, Jennifer Ringo's proclivity for languages and linguistics revealed itself as a child and parents nurtured her interests. She is fluent in French, Italian and Spanish. Her Cuban mother taught French and Spanish in the Iowa City school system, and her father, a Spanish professor, was head of the Spanish Department at the University of Iowa.
RAVINIA STEANS INSTITUTE 2018. Photo by Patrick Gipson.
Coaching, Residencies, + Masterclasses
Coaching
Ms. Ringo maintains private studios (voice and diction coaching) in Los Angeles and New York, and is available for coaching when traveling or in residency with companies.
Residencies
Ms. Ringo joins companies + schools for extended periods of artist residency as a diction coach. Residencies may include production preparation or general coaching + masterclass availability.
Masterclasses
Ms. Ringo routinely travels for masterclass teaching at various Young Artist Programs and Schools to work with students.
INTERVIEW FROM RAVINIA STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE
"Jennifer Ringo is a champion of the classical singer. She exudes a passion for language that only a singer understands. I have watched her work with singers at a many different levels and she always leaves them feeling empowered and inspired."
Carol Vaness
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
"I have known Jennifer Ringo for 35 years...she remains one of the most intuitive singers and excellent language coaches I know. She’s a singer who loves other singers and is dedicated to them performing with precision and beauty. I trust her with ALL my own singers. She is a gift to each and every one!!"
Martha Letterman
DIRECTOR + AUTHOR
"Jennifer possesses a rare and mature insight which reflects deep experiential roots in linguistic, vocal, dramatic, and orchestral arts. She brings to each individual and ensemble a wealth of knowledge and empathic listening.
The solutions she offers as an accomplished diction coach reflect the power of her past experience and insure her and those she assists well deserved places amidst colleagues now and in the future."
Mark Schnaible
BASS-BARITONE + VOICE TEACHER
"Whether it is an art song or an operatic role, Jennifer Ringo is a singer's best friend. She brings her expert knowledge of languages to the rescue! Jennifer is where the word meets the singing voice. I recommend her highly."
