Bio
Her soprano debut was the title role of Salome at San Francisco Opera with music director Nicola Luisotti conducting. She covered the role of Brünnhilde and sang the role of Ortlinde in Francesca Zambello’s San Francisco Opera production of Die Walküre, conducted by Donald Runnicles. Other American opera appearances include Seattle Opera, Arizona Opera, Spoleto Festival, and Washington National Opera. In the 2013-2014 season she made her role debut as Marietta/Marie in Die tote Stadt with Theater St. Gallen, Switzerland in a production directed by Jan Schmidt-Garré and conducted by Otto Tausk.
Before her switch to dramatic soprano repertoire, Molly Fillmore had an international career as a mezzo-soprano, including five seasons as a principal soloist in the ensemble of Oper der Stadt Köln (Cologne Opera), where she appeared in numerous roles, including Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Romeo in I Capuleti e I Montecchi, Don Ramiro in La finta giardiniera, Smeraldine in L’amour des trois oranges, Mercedes in Carmen, Wellgunde in Das Rheingold, and Waltraute in Die Walküre. In Cologne, she worked with, among others, conductors Sir Jeffrey Tate, Robert Carsen, Daniele Callegari, Graeme Jenkins, and Philippe Auguin as well as stage directors Christof Loy, Günter Krämer, and Torsten Fischer. Other mezzo-soprano appearances included the roles of Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice with Chattanooga Opera, and Margret in Wozzeck for the Spoleto Festival.
An active recitalist, she studied German art song at the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, where her teachers included Walter Berry, Elly Ameling, Jörg Demus, Helmut Deutsch, and Rudolf Jansen. She gave a joint recital with tenor Ernst Haefliger at the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn and has been heard in recital in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, China and various cities in the United States.
On the concert stage, has appeared as a soloist in an operatic concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, the Mozart Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Detroit Symphony, La damnation de Faust with Utah Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Magnificat and an opera gala with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall, a Gershwin celebration and Mozart Requiem in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Isolde’s “Liebestod” at the Interlochen Arts Festival, Stravinsky’s Les Noces at the Great Lakes Chamber Festival, and in the Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël, broadcast on DeustchlandFunk Radio. On the concert stage she has worked with Gerard Schwarz, Hans Graf, Lothar Koenigs, Keith Lockhart, John Rutter, Norman Scribner, and Nicholas McGegan.
Molly Fillmore made her solo operatic debut with the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center Opera House while a sophomore at American University. By the time she had completed her Master's Degree, she had appeared in seven roles (including a principal role in the zarzuela El Gato Montes) with the Washington National Opera and as a soloist in numerous concerts at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. She graduated magna cum laude from American University in Washington, D.C., and holds a Master of Music degree from University of Maryland, where she studied with Dominic Cossa.
Alongside her singing activities, Molly Fillmore has long been an active pedagogue, adjudicator, and clinician. While pursuing her Master's degree, she began her teaching career as a voice teacher for St. Alban's School and the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C.. She has taught voice at the university level since 2004, first at Michigan State University, and since 2014, at University of North Texas. She is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.