Dr. Sharon O'Connell Campbell

She/Her/Hers

Chair / Professor of Music, Voice

Office: FAB 222 / 257   |    Phone: (308) 865-8614 / (308) 865-8828   |    Email: campbellso@unk.edu

Dr. Sharon O'Connell Campbell

Biography

SHARON O’CONNELL CAMPBELL (she/her), mezzo-soprano, frequently performs (often premiering) newly composed works. As a member of collaborative groups that create and perform innovative staged art song concerts, she has performed in Minnesota, New York, Missouri, Nevada, Kansas, and Nebraska. She performs nearly annually on the University of Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival.

She also is at home in opera, concert, and recital repertoire. She has appeared as a soloist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Mass in C and Symphony No. 9, and Handel's Messiah among other major works. Her numerous opera roles include the Third Lady in the Lyric Opera of Kansas City production of Die Zauberflöte, Baba in The Medium, La Badessa (Suor Angelica), The Princess (Sister Angelica), Florence Pike (Albert Herring), Mistress Quickly (Falstaff), The Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Mme. Du Croissy (Dialogue of the Carmelites), and as Terentia, in UNK’s 2019 National Opera Association award-winning production of Captain Lovelock.

Dr. Campbell is a graduate of the University of Kansas, where she earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance (as a student of Joyce Castle). She holds the M.M. from the Conservatory at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Inci Bashar, Classical Singer 2009 "Teacher of the Year"), and B.M. from the University of New Mexico (Bradley Ellingboe).

As a scholar she has published articles in the AmeriGrove encyclopedia published by Oxford University Press and has published and presented internationally on musical theatre performance practices.  She has co-presented at the National Association of Singers national conference and at the International Tuba Euphonium Conference on the evolution of the vocalise.

She chairs the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and is a Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Previously, she taught studio voice for the University of Kansas and served as Visiting Lecturer in Music at Benedictine College (Atchison, KS). Dr. Campbell has worked as a performer and administrator for the Education/Outreach programs of both Santa Fe Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City where she developed educational materials and conducted clinics and workshops for preschool through high school students. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.