Stephanie Foley Davis was praised by the New York Times in her Glimmerglass Festival debut in The Tender Land as “a poised, touching Ma Moss" and Opera News said she was “a loving, careworn Ma, warm of voice and presence." Ms. Davis subsequently returned to Glimmerglass to create the role of Mary McCarthy in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s A Blizzard in Marblehead Neck. Of her role debut as Charlotte in Nightingale Opera Theatre’s production of Werther, Cleveland Classical said, “…Foley Davis and Culver were terrific in their singing and in delineating their sadness."
Ms. Davis has appeared in leading roles throughout the US with companies such as Arizona Opera, Nashville Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Roanoke, Buffalo Philharmonic, Vero Beach Opera, Nightingale Opera Theatre, Orlando Philharmonic and almost every professional opera company in North Carolina, including Opera Carolina, Piedmont Opera, North Carolina Opera, and Greensboro Opera. The Roanoke Times said Foley Davis “gives us a Rosina of fiery impetuousness while also nailing the character’s distinctively wry wit.”
Stephanie is excited to return as mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Greensboro Symphony, to Opera Roanoke as Zita in Gianni Schicchi, and to NC Opera as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro for the 2024-25 season.
The 2023-24 season saw a return to Piedmont Opera for Stephanie as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Sylvia in David Wolfson's opera Rapture. A regular soloist with the Piedmont Wind Symphony, Stephanie sang on their “Home for the Holidays” concert, as well as their “Pops in the Pit” in September. Opera Roanoke’s Strauss Ecstasy concert featured Foley Davis as Komponist in October.
A sought-after soloist, Stephanie has performed in concert with orchestras and ensembles throughout the US, including Santa Fe Symphony, Carolina Ballet, Richmond Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Piedmont Wind Symphony, Portland Symphony (Maine,) and Arizona MusicFest.
Other credits include Mercedes in Greensboro Opera‘s Carmen, Suzuki in Piedmont Opera’s Madama Butterfly, the mezzo soloist in the Winston-Salem Symphony’s Beethoven’s 9th, and as a distinguished alumna in Verdi’s Requiem at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Joseph Newsome (Voix des Arts) said, “Verdi entrusted the first phrases of ‘Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine’ to the mezzo-soprano soloist, and it is difficult to imagine that he could have expected them to be sung more handsomely and incisively than Foley Davis sang them in Greensboro." Stephanie was also asked to perform the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram's Lost Music from the Heart of Everything for NC Opera.
Ms. Davis is the Associate Director and Master Teacher at The Music Academy of North Carolina, where she has been teaching voice since 2011.
