Dennis Jesse

Galante Professor of Voice

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Biography

Dennis Jesse is the Galante Professor of Voice and Professor of Voice at Louisiana State University, where he maintains an active voice studio and serves as Manager of LSU Opera productions. A distinguished performer, educator, and stage director, he brings extensive professional experience in opera, operetta, musical theatre, concert repertoire, and vocal pedagogy to his work with developing singers.

As a baritone, Jesse has performed with opera companies throughout the United States and internationally. His extensive repertoire includes the title roles in Rigoletto, Don Giovanni, Gianni Schicchi, Nabucco, and Il barbiere di Siviglia, as well as leading roles in Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, La bohème, Carmen, Faust, Roméo et Juliette, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Così fan tutte, Dead Man Walking, and The Crucible. He has also appeared in more than forty operettas and numerous musical theatre productions.

Recent engagements include Doctor Bartolo in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Charlottesville Opera and Kentucky Opera and Baron Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca with Pensacola Opera and Opéra Louisiane. Other professional engagements have included Germont in La traviata with Pensacola Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Opéra Louisiane, the title role in Gianni Schicchi with Anchorage Opera, and Marcaniello in Lo frate ’nnamorato with the Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini in Italy.

Equally active as a concert artist, Jesse’s repertoire includes the Verdi Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. He has also appeared at Carnegie Hall in performances of Schubert’s Mass in G and Mozart’s Te Deum and Regina Coeli.

Jesse’s work at LSU extends beyond the voice studio to opera production, stage direction, vocal pedagogy, and the mentoring of graduate and doctoral students. His work as a stage director has been recognized by The American Prize, including an award in directing for LSU Opera’s production of Orson Rehearsed. He is committed to developing singers who combine a healthy and sustainable vocal technique with musicianship, stylistic understanding, dramatic communication, and the professional skills necessary for a changing musical landscape.

An active international teacher and clinician, Jesse has served on the faculties of FIO Mondo, the Opera Festival di Roma, and La Musica Lirica in Italy, as well as FIO Americas in Brazil, working with emerging professional singers from the United States and abroad.

Jesse holds a Bachelor of Music Education and a Master of Music from Bowling Green State University.