Susan Davenny Wyner

Susan Davenny-Wyner (born Susan Davenny, October 17, 1943) is a nationally-acclaimed American conductor based in Massachusetts. Davenny-Wyner had promising career as a soprano, which was ended by an automobile/bicycling accident that damaged her vocal cords.

Davenny-Wyner was born October 17, 1943 in New Haven, Connecticut where her father, pianist Ward Davenny, was professor of music at Yale University. She was originally trained as a violinist and violist. Following early studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Hartford School of Music, she graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University in 1965 with degrees in both comparative English literature and in music. She entered into vocal studies with Herta Glaz from 1969-1975. She received a Fulbright scholarship and a grant from the Ford Foundation, and also won the Walter W. Naumberg Prize.

She made her solo debut as a vocalist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1974. She was a soloist in Georg Handel's Messiah under Sir Colin Davis with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She sang in Ludwig Beethoven's Ninth at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. under Leonard Bernstein, who invited her to perform his own Kaddish Symphony and Songfest. Davenny-Wyner made her first New York City Opera appearance as Claudio Monteverdi's Poppea October 23, 1977. She received critical acclaim as the lead role in Maurice Ravel's opera L'Enfant et les Sortileges with Andre Previn. In 1981, Ms. Wyner made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Woglinde in Das Rheingold under Erich Leinsdorf. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York City as Woglinde in Das Rheingold October 8, 1981.

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