Dr. Diane Bolden-Taylor
Professor of Music
Voice, Soprano
Head, Vocal Area
Frasier 153
970-351-1314
Diane Bolden-Taylor completed her undergraduate studies at Millikin University and her Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance at Indiana University. She completed her DMA in Vocal Performance at the University of Texas at Austin. For 17 years, Professor Bolden-Taylor lived in Europe, where she performed with several major orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Bonn and Palma di Mallorca. Her opera and concert engagements have taken her throughout the United States, Europe, India, and Africa. She has performed operatic roles in various opera houses including those in Zurich and Basel in Switzerland, Bonn and Stuttgart in Germany, and at Opera Colorado in Denver. A lyric soprano, her roles include Mimi (La Boheme), Michaela (Carmen), Bess (Porgy and Bess), Nedda (Pagliacci), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan Tutti), Madama Butterfly in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, and Conception in Ravel’s L’heure Espanol. Also among her credits are Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah and Karol Ruzicka’s Celebration Mass (written especially for her and performed at the 1991 International Jazz Festival in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Diane has performed recitals and voice master classes both in the U.S. and in Europe. In addition to teaching voice, Diane specializes in teaching foreign language diction classes and performing lecture recitals, which focus on the art songs of black composers. Diane frequently organizes summer vocal workshops, which provide instruction in voice and the basics of music to middle and high school students. In 2010 she joined the faculty of the Beverly Hills International Summer Music Festival.