Dr. Mandy Spivak, a native of Miami, Florida has found success in teaching, as well as performing in concert and on the operatic stage. Dr. Spivak received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and a Master of Music degree from the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. She also holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Miami. She is currently Assistant Professor of Music at West Virginia Wesleyan College and Adjunct Professor of Voice at West Virginia University.
Dr.
Spivak has been a featured performer at the John Duffy Composer’s Institute at
the Virginia Arts Festival for the last five summers in Norfolk, VA. She
recently portrayed Desdemona in the world premiere of The Bride of the Moor by Thomas Pasatieri with Opera Beaumont in
Beaumont, TX. Additionally, she
has performed the title role in Puccini’s Tosca
in a concert version with Frost Opera Theatre and in a staged performance
with Amarillo Opera. Other roles
with AO include Love Simpson in Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree and Minnie in Wage
of Sin for a KACV television production. Her portrayal of Miss Lavish in the production of Robert
Nelson’s A Room with a View has been
made available on commercially-released DVD in recent years.
Other roles Dr. Spivak has had the privilege to perform include
Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow,
Adina in The Elixir of Love,
Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Arminda
in La Finta Giardiniera, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief and Anne Page
in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Dr. Spivak has also been seen in a
series of “Cameo Concerts” in the South Florida area associated with Gold Coast
Opera.
On
the concert stage, Dr. Spivak has most recently been heard in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with Fairmont
State University, Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 9 with the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Saul with the Miami Bach Society, Schubert’s
Mass in C with Collegium Cantorei in
Miami and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with
the Moores Symphony Orchestra in Houston, Texas. Her other concert appearances include solo work in Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, the Solemn Vespers by Mozart, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Missa
Cubana by Vitier, and Bach’s Cantata
140.