Highly-regarded as a performer and much sought-after as a stage director, Dr. Tamara Watson Harper has held faculty positions at Angelo State University, Georgia Southern University, Georgia Perimeter College, and Reinhardt University, where she will be Associate Professor of Voice and Opera beginning in Fall 2012.
Tamara Watson Harper
A lyric soprano, Dr. Tamara Watson Harper has performed the title roles in Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE, Massenet’s CENDRILLON and Poulenc’s LES MAMELLES DE TIRÉSIAS, Anna I in THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS by Kurt Weill, Gretel in HANSEL UND GRETEL and Elle in LA VOIX HUMAINE, as well as making numerous concert appearances throughout the United States.
Recent directing credits include Peach State Opera’s CARMEN AND FRIENDS and ELIXIR OF LOVE, assistant director for Atlanta Opera’s recent production of LA BOHEME and, in her cinema debut, she staged the opera vignettes seen in Tyler Perry’s FOR COLORED GIRLS.
University directing credits include productions of THE MAGIC FLUTE, COSÌ FAN TUTTE, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, L’ELISIR D’AMORE, THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, HMS PINAFORE, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, and THE DESERT SONG. She has served, in addition, as musical director/conductor for productions of CABARET and THE FANTASTICKS, and as choreographer for numerous others. She has been assistant director in two, important summer-abroad music festivals in Italy: Oberlin in Italy (Urbania) and, under the auspices of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, at the Opera Festival of Lucca.
After receiving the Bachelor of Music degree at the Ohio State University, she earned the first of two graduate degrees at the Boston Conservatory of Music (Master of Music), followed by the School of Music at Florida State University, where she received her doctorate. Additional vocal studies were at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and at the Opera Festival of Lucca. She makes her home in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, Steven, and their son, Dean.