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, 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 2022 season will see Stephanie debut with the Richmond Symphony and Arizona MusicFest as the alto soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, as well as return to NC Opera as Zweite Dame in Magic Flute. Stephanie was asked to perform the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram's Lost Music from the Heart of Everything, also for NC Opera.
She made her role and company debut with Opera Roanoke singing Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Memphis Symphony Orchestra for Messiah under the baton of Robert Moody. In 2019-2020, she made company debuts with Santa Fe Symphony in Messiah and with Vero Beach Opera as Rosina.
Stephanie returned to the Winston-Salem Symphony to perform the mezzo-soprano solos in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah" and Jenkins’ The Armed Man under the baton of Robert Moody, after which they reprised the concert with the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine).
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 created the role of Flo in the World Premiere of Libby Larsen’s Picnic in April 2009, commissioned by the UNCG School of Music.
Ms. Davis is currently Associate Director, Master Teacher, and Chair of the Voice Faculty at The Music Academy of North Carolina, where she has been teaching voice since 2011.
