ABOUT
Denver-based musician Cristin Colvin is a native of Johnson City, Tennessee. Cristin sings with her own jazz combos around Denver metro and the Front Range, produces contemporary classical chamber music with Redline Contemporary Art Center, and is currently working on some recording projects.
Ms. Colvin received her Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Bachelor of Arts in Vocal and Piano Performance with minor in Creative Writing from Emory & Henry College in Virginia. At Emory she studied under Dr. Stephen Sieck and Dr. Lisa Withers, and at Illinois she studied under Jerold Siena and coached with Dr. Julie Gunn and Dennis Helmrich.
In 2016, Cristin proudly helped to found and served as Vice President of the Denver Opera Collective, a non-profit opera company seeking to give stage opportunities to singers past the academic stage of their careers.
Cristin's opera credits include her pants role debut as Damon in Handel's Acis and Galatea, the titular role of Florencia en el Amazonas, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Suor Genevieffa in Suor Angelica, and Euridice in Gluck's Orphée et Euridice as well as scene credits in Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie), Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi), Don Giovanni (Donna Anna and Donna Elvira), Les contes d'Hoffman (Antonia), and Hansel ünd Gretel (Sandman). In the summer of 2013, Ms. Colvin volunteered in the chorus of Cold Sassy Tree at Sugar Creek Symphony and Song. In 2014, Ms Colvin was seen as an apprentice artist at the Castleton Festival in Castleton, Virginia in the chorus of Madama Butterfly and featured in scenes of the CATSpectacular. She returned to the Castleton Festival in the summer of 2015 to both cover the role of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and perform as a living statue in the premiere of Derrick Wang's opera Scalia/Ginsburg, under the direction of Maria Tucci.
A versatile musician, Ms. Colvin has experience with collegiate and semi-professional choirs, opera, musical theatre, as well as varied piano experience as a vocal accompanist and church musician. She has taught privately as well as held a voice studio of non-majors through the University of Illinois' Living Learning Communities. While pursuing graduate coursework in Women's and Gender Studies at DePaul University Chicago focusing on the intersections of masculinity and jazz, she performed with the Wicker Park Choral Singers and the Chicago Chamber Choir at various Chicago locations such as Millennium Park, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Garfield Conservatory, and St. Vincent de Paul parish. While in Chicago, she studied and coached under Caroline Shaul Wright and Nicholas Hutchinson.
Cristin actively seeks new opportunities for her performance career in the Denver metro area. She seeks to bring classical music to a new audience in novel ways while continuing to perform jazz in the Mile High City's burgeoning scene. She runs the travel blog www.sopranoonthego.wordpress.com to document her adventures to and from gigs and auditions. All events are supported by Ms. Colvin's company, Toxoplasma Arts LLC.
