New music powerhouse Lisa Neher is a mezzo-soprano, composer, and actress on a mission to transform audiences through story, sound, and open heartedness. She is inspired by female athleticism, the tender love of friends, the ambiguities of death, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. Her collaborators include Third Angle New Music, Delgani String Quartet, Rhymes With Opera, Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, and University of Michigan Saxophone Ensemble.
She released her first EP “Of Wind and Waves” in January and her opera Sense of Self, written with librettist Kendra Preston Leonard, will be premiered by Opera Elect this year. With Leonard, she wrote and produced the One Voice Project Micro-Opera Festival, a weeklong festival of miniature operas released online. Neher is the winner of the 2021 Iowa Choral Director’s Association / Iowa Composers Forum Choral Composition Competition for her set Three Basho Haiku.
Described by Oregon ArtsWatch as “a small woman with a very big voice” and “especially alive,” Neher captivates audiences with her electrifying dramatic commitment and unforgettable vocal colors. She recently performed with Third Angle New Music, the Resonance Ensemble, New Music Gathering, Queer Opera, the International Saxophone Symposium, Opera Theatre Oregon, and Cascadia Composers. She is the curator of the One Voice Project, which champions unaccompanied solo vocal performance.
In addition to her creative work, Neher coaches composers on writing for voices and singers on technique, acting, and stage movement.
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