Klesie Kelly

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Klesie Kelly, also known as Klesie Kelly-Moog, is an American soprano and voice teacher who has built much of her career in Germany. She was born in Kentucky and studied voice at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, then continued her training in Germany with Bettina Björnsten and at the Musikhochschule Detmold with Helmut Kretschmar and Günther Weißenborn. Kelly has focused more on concert work than on opera and has performed across Europe and in Japan, working with conductors such as Moshe Atzmon, Wolfgang Gönnenwein, Erich Leinsdorf, Bruno Maderna and Hiroshi Wakasugi. From 1986 to 2014 she was a professor of voice at the Musikhochschule Köln and has taught master classes internationally.

In 1971 she appeared at the Mozartsaal of the Vienna Konzerthaus, singing lieder by Purcell, Schubert and Strauss, accompanied by Norman Shetler. She recorded songs by Mozart, Schumann, Wolf and Zemlinsky with pianist Werner Genuit, and in 1977 she recorded Abendlieder, Liebeslieder und Romanzen with tenor Ian Partridge, with instrumentalists including Hermann Baumann, Dieter Klöcker, Karl-Otto Hartmann and Genuit. Her recital and chamber music repertoire includes rarely performed pieces such as Randhartinger’s Schlummerlied for soprano, tenor, horn and piano, Lachner’s Seit ich ihn gesehen for soprano, clarinet and piano, and Lachner’s Laute Liebe for soprano, bassoon and piano.

At Wiesbaden’s Marktkirche she sang with the Rheingauer Kantorei, performing Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Radiosinfonieorchester Frankfurt in 1979 and Honegger’s König David in 1980, with Claudia Eder as the young David and Gerd Nienstedt as the narrator. Kelly’s teaching career continued to shape the next generation of singers. Her students include Juan Carlos Echeverry, Julia Kleiter, Ulrike Maria Maier and Christiane Oelze, many of whom have won international competitions or joined leading opera companies. In 2013 her students participated in Bach St Matthew Passion lecture concerts conducted by Helmuth Rilling at the Bachwoche Stuttgart, four concerts that were recorded and filmed live.