Ivy Walz joined the voice faculty of Ithaca College in 2011, but is not new to the excellence in music education and community found here. Ivy Walz is an alumnus of Ithaca College, School of Music, with a Bachelor of Music in voice performance and music education and a Master of Music in voice performance. Ithaca College was the perfect place for her to develop her love of performing and teaching and she is thrilled to pass on this tradition of excellence in her professional work at Ithaca College. She is committed to helping students develop essential skills and a solid singing technique. In her teaching she helps students to discover and develop their unique strengths that will lead to healthy singing, creativity and artistic expression.
Ivy Walz is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts from the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. As part of her doctoral work she completed a cognate in vocal pedagogy. During her doctoral studies at the College Conservatory of Music she was a graduate assistant and her primary responsibilities here were teaching voice to the musical theater majors. Prior to her doctoral studies she served on the voice faculty of the State University of New York at Cortland for four years. Additionally, she has taught voice as a visiting lecturer at Cornell University. She has worked extensively with students with a desire to sing in all singing styles; classical, musical theater, pop and jazz.
Teaching and performing have always gone hand in hand for Ivy Walz. She has studied privately with Mary Henderson-Stucky, Barbara Honn, Patrice Pastore and Deborah Montgomery-Cove. She has worked closely with coaches Kenneth Griffiths, Donna Loewy, Marie-France LeFebvre and Diane Richardson. She leads an active performing life and is a sought after collaborator of oratorio, art song and opera. She received invaluable operatic training as an artist in residence at Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, NY. Here she had the opportunity to perform numerous main stage roles including Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Nicklausse in Les Contes D'Hoffmann, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. Since then she has performed with Syracuse Opera and was a winner of the Supporting Artist of the Year for her portrayal of Papagena. She also performed at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. She was an Apprentice Artist at Des Moines Metro Opera. While studying at the College Conservatory of Music she was featured as Bradamante in Alcina and Idamante in Idomeneo. As a Corbett Young Artist with Cincinnati Opera, she was a member of the main stage opera chorus for three seasons. Ivy Walz has a love for sharing opera with young audiences, and has performed opera outreach with Tri-Cities Opera, Syracuse Opera and Cincinnati Opera. Her most recent opera performance was with the CRS Barn Studio in Ithaca, NY, where she performed the role of Hansel in Hansel and Gretel.
A sought after oratorio soloist, Ivy Walz has most recently performed with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Akron Symphony, and the Binghamton Philharmonic. She was recently hailed by Cleveland Classical.com as "a standout" for her solo work in the Mozart Requiem. She has upcoming engagements with the Cortland Choral Union, The Ithaca Community Chorus and the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes.
Ivy Walz is dedicated to the art of the song recital and particularly 21st century American Art Song. During the Summer of 2012 she received a fellowship from the National Association of Teachers of Singing to attend SongFest where she had the opportunity to work with William Bolcom, Joan Morris, John Musto, Amy Burton, Martin Katz and Graham Johnson. While at SongFest she was a featured performer in John Musto's work The Book of Uncommon Prayer. She was a semi-finalist in the Joy in Singing competition in 2012 and is again in 2013. She has recently performed works by composers Jake Heggie, Amit Gilutz, Jennifer Jolley, Rachel Lockwood and Kate Whitely.
When Ivy is not involved in making music she enjoys walking, reading, cooking, and the country life with her husband Peter Walz and their dog Watson.