Faculty Biography

Sandra Boysen, Lecturer


Contact:
(585) 880-1026
sboysen@frontiernet.net


Departmental Responsibilities:
Applied Voice for Primaries
Class Voice Instruction


Education:
Florida State University, DM
Florida State University, MM
Pensacola Christian College, BA


Biography:
Dr. Sandra Boysen, soprano, has performed leading roles with American opera companies, sung Tagalog folk songs throughout the Philippines, appeared onstage in a Broadway cabaret, and jammed with jazz musicians throughout western New York state.

Since her debut with Pensacola Opera as Despina in Cosi fan tutte, she has appeared with Palm Beach Opera, Mobile Opera, Florida State Opera, The Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera, and South Georgia Opera, among others, under conductors including Anton Guadagno, Stefan Minde, Benton Hess, and Roger Cantrell. Her roles include Mozart's great ladies, Romantic heroines, and women in contemporary works, with lighter roles ranging from Gilbert & Sullivan to the title role in Evita. In 2000, she made her Opera Rochester debut in Viktor Ullman's operatic allegory of the Holocaust, The Emperor of Atlantis, and in 2003, created the role of Amy in the world premiere of Paul Stuart's opera The Sisters of Manzanar with the Equinox Symphony Orchestra.

She toured the Philippines in 2000, performing selections from opera and musical theatre as well as works in Spanish and Tagalog, and in August 2001, made her Broadway debut at Manhattan's famed Don't Tell Mama Cabaret. Her musical theatre roles include leads in The Sound of Music, Little Shop of Horrors, The Music Man, The Fantasticks, The King and I, and Camelot, among others. In 2003, she sang the New York premiere of the Grammy-nominated children's musical, The Journey of Sir Douglas Fir, with the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra.

A successful concert artist, Dr. Boysen appeared as soloist with the Bach Aria Festival at SUNY-Stony Brook, Cornell, Eastman, Westminster Choir College, and numerous colleges and ensembles throughout the U.S. Her solo recitals have been heard throughout the eastern and midwestern U.S., and she appeared as soloist in hundreds of schools and churches from coast to coast during a three-year tour.

She is a regular performer on the popular "Live From Hochstein" radio broadcasts in Rochester, New York on WXXI 91.5 FM, and was honored to be soprano soloist in September 2001 for Mozart's Requiem at the Eastman Theatre with the Eastman Philharmonia, as a benefit for victims of 9-11. Additional regional credits include solo appearances with the Rochester Oratorio Society, the Rochester Bach Festival, Equinox Symphony Orchestra, the Publick Musick and others.

She earned her D.M. and M.M. degrees in Voice Performance from Florida State University, studying with Roy Delp and Yvonne Ciannella, and is on the voice faculty at both Nazareth College and the Hochstein School of Music & Dance. She held a prestigious teaching internship at Ithaca College in 2000 with the National Association of Teachers of Singing, an Artist Fellowship with the Bach Aria Festival & Institute at SUNY-Stony Brook, and was a Group Study Exchange Team member through Rotary International. Dr. Boysen is married to filmmaker, author and educator Charles Boyd.