biography
Praised by the Leipziger Volkszeitung for her lush sound and powerful expression, soprano Christine Moore Vassallo is a versatile performer with equal command in opera, recital, and contemporary music. The Sacramento, California native counts among her many roles Mimi in La boheme, the title role in Madama Butterfly, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Micaela in Carmen, the title role in Suor Angelica, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Judith in Bluebeard's Castle, Leonora in Il Trovatore (described as "velvety and luscious" by SongWordSight Magazine), the title roles in Aida and Ariadne auf Naxos with such companies as the Leipzig Opera, Central City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Institute, Utopia Opera, Create Opera, the Aldeburgh Summer Festival, Sacramento Opera and the Amato Opera and Lyric Artists of New York. She was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and First Prize winner of the Sacramento Opera Competition. Oratorio performances include Barber's Knoxville-Summer of 1915, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Rossini's Stabat Mater, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and the Verdi Requiem with the New York Choral Society and most recently with Orchestra Amadeus.
In 2013 she made her Italy debut at the Narnia Music Festival in a concert celebrating the 200th birthday of Verdi. That same year she curated and performed in the first ever concert of Arab composers, "Nearer to East: Chamber Music from the Arab World" at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at New York's Lincoln Center, which concert was lauded by the Library as one of the outstanding concerts of the year. She speaks five languages and sings in ten, and has given numerous solo recitals featuring works of all genres of repertoire and languages, including in Granada and Madrid with Festival de Cancion Espanola, Trinity Concert Series in New York, the Library at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Old Stone House. She made her UK debut in 2005 at the Paxton Chamber Music Festival in Scotland with Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (praised by the Glasgow Herald) and has premiered many new works by living composers, including at NYC's Merkin Hall of Richard Thompson's song cycle The Shadow of Dawn as well as the NYC premiere of his opera The Mask in the Mirror, Andrew Rudin's Masha's Arias, and works and premieres by Michael Rose, Kareem Roustom, Halim El-Dabh, Richard Cameron-Wolfe, Steve Gerber and Zaid Jabri with the Brooklyn New Music Collective. In 2008 she sang the world premiere of Mohammed Fairouz's Tahwidah written for her and clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh. Radio appearances include WNYE and WBAI (New York City) and KRZA (New Mexico). In 2006 she released her first recording, Christine Moore - Arias with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Musical Concepts). In 2016 she founded Lyric Artists of New York as a singing collective to provide opportunities to singers of all ages to perform in opera and recitals in concert halls as well as in New York City schools, cultural and senior centers. LANY's first major production was Verdi's Aida to benefit Syrian refugees through Medecins sans Frontieres and the SAMS Foundation. In addition to performing, she leads an active teaching schedule as a private voice teacher, ArtSmart mentor, and as a summer Teaching Artist with the Lunigiana International Music Festival and American Voices' YES Academy Lebanon.