| ELLA LEE Co-Founder & Artistic Director |
Ella Lee was born in Tyler, Texas, but was raised in Los Angeles and considers
herself an Angeleno rather than a Texan. She attended Los Angeles City
College and UCLA, and studied originally with Natalie Limonick, Jan Popper
and Hugo Strelitzer among others. She remembers fondly Nina Henson,
Marilyn Horne and Marilyn Niska from those halcyon days. Ella relates: “It was
Natalie Limonick and Friedelind Wagner who really pushed my career and
provided the moral support in the early, tough years.” Her first full-fledged
engagement as an opera “star” was in Israel in Verdi’s Aida. “It was the Opera
Guild and the Guild Opera who gave me the opportunity to sing the complete
role in a Guild Opera production of Aida in 1960, with Lotfi Mansouri as
director, that made it possible for me to accept the opportunity in Israel.”
Ella Lee has sung the role of Aida over 500 times, as well as singing in hundreds
of performances of Tosca, Il Trovatore and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. She
has sung leading roles at San Francisco Opera and Chicago Opera, as well as the
European houses, Komische Oper, Berlin Oper, Vienna Oper, Munich Oper and
Israel National Opera. She has also been a soloist with various symphony
orchestras under noted conductors Molinari-Pradelli, Kurt Mazur, Leonard
Bernstein, Robert Shaw, William Steinberg, Sir Cohn Davis, Zubin Mehta,
Seigi Ozawa and Sir George Solti, as well as appearing on Austrian and
German television. She was an Urban League Woman of the Year, an L.A.
Times Woman of the Year, and sang at the opening night of the Los Angeles
Music Center. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the newly formed
Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera.
Ms. Lee was cited in Kurt Pahlan’s book “Great Singers from the Seventeenth
Century to the Present Day” as one of the world-class singers from the United
States to gain prominence in European opera. In January of 2008 she was the
recipient of the National Opera Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
herself an Angeleno rather than a Texan. She attended Los Angeles City
College and UCLA, and studied originally with Natalie Limonick, Jan Popper
and Hugo Strelitzer among others. She remembers fondly Nina Henson,
Marilyn Horne and Marilyn Niska from those halcyon days. Ella relates: “It was
Natalie Limonick and Friedelind Wagner who really pushed my career and
provided the moral support in the early, tough years.” Her first full-fledged
engagement as an opera “star” was in Israel in Verdi’s Aida. “It was the Opera
Guild and the Guild Opera who gave me the opportunity to sing the complete
role in a Guild Opera production of Aida in 1960, with Lotfi Mansouri as
director, that made it possible for me to accept the opportunity in Israel.”
Ella Lee has sung the role of Aida over 500 times, as well as singing in hundreds
of performances of Tosca, Il Trovatore and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. She
has sung leading roles at San Francisco Opera and Chicago Opera, as well as the
European houses, Komische Oper, Berlin Oper, Vienna Oper, Munich Oper and
Israel National Opera. She has also been a soloist with various symphony
orchestras under noted conductors Molinari-Pradelli, Kurt Mazur, Leonard
Bernstein, Robert Shaw, William Steinberg, Sir Cohn Davis, Zubin Mehta,
Seigi Ozawa and Sir George Solti, as well as appearing on Austrian and
German television. She was an Urban League Woman of the Year, an L.A.
Times Woman of the Year, and sang at the opening night of the Los Angeles
Music Center. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the newly formed
Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera.
Ms. Lee was cited in Kurt Pahlan’s book “Great Singers from the Seventeenth
Century to the Present Day” as one of the world-class singers from the United
States to gain prominence in European opera. In January of 2008 she was the
recipient of the National Opera Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
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