Kirsten Osbun Manley

Kirsten Osbun Manley is Resident Artist in Music and Lecturer in Music and Co-Director of the Musical Theatre program at Ohio Northern University, where she teaches voice, diction for singers, and directs the Opera Workshop program. Her directing highlights at ONU include: The Pirates of Penzance, Hansel and Gretel, The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Marriage of Figaro, Die Fledermaus, Threepenny Opera, Little Mary Sunshine, The Magic Flute, and The Holiday Spectacular. Kirsten is member of Actors’ Equity Association, National Association for Teachers of Singing, and The Musical Theatre Educators Alliance. She is an active adjudicator for many operatic, vocal, and choral competitions throughout the state of Ohio. Ms. Osbun Manley was trained at Bowling Green State University, where she received a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. Graduate studies were taken at Indiana University, where she studied with Reri Grist and coached with such luminaries as John Wustman, Margaret Harshaw, Martha Lipton, and Walter Cassell. She has participated in master classes with Cynthia Hoffmann, Martina Arroyo, William Warfield, and Leonard Bernstein. Ms. Osbun Manley has extensive performance experience in a wide variety of musical genres including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera and music theatre. She has appeared in recital and concert in performance venues throughout the Great Lakes Region. Recently, she was the featured soprano soloist in the Brahms Requiem with the Lima Symphony Orchestra, appeared as Sister Helen Prejean in the opera Dead Man Walking, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and performed with The ChicagoLand Pops Orchestra in Rosemont, Illinois. As a teacher, Ms. Osbun Manley is interested in working with aspiring young performers to develop a technique that will withstand the demands placed on the singing actor regardless of musical style. Her students have been accepted for graduate work at some of the leading music schools in the country, and many have gone on to enjoy successful careers as performers and music educators.