San Diego native Elise Read holds a Doctorate in Vocal Performance from Indiana University with doctoral minors in Russian and Music Education. During her doctoral studies Elise studied with Mary Ann Hart and Costanza Cuccaro, and served as an Associate Instructor at Indiana University. At IU Elise sang the roles of the Mother in The Three Hermits, Euterpe in Parnasso in festa, and Bertarido in Rodelinda. Previously Elise worked as adjunct professor at Brigham Young University, where she conducted opera chorus and taught group and private voice lessons. Under the tutelage of Darrell Babidge, she received her master's degree in vocal performance from BYU, where she performed the roles of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Ruth in Pirates of Penzance, and Frau Lange in the world-premier of The Lost Children of Hamelin.
In 2015 Elise won the BYU Concerto Competition, and was the recipient of the Ariel Bybee Award.
Fluent in Russian, Elise received a prestigious graduate fellowship to study Russian art song and aria at the Moscow State Conservatory with renowned soprano Galina Pisarenko in 2014.
Twice she has been awarded the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for Russian.
She has lectured on Russian art song in undergraduate and graduate classes.
Elise enjoys teaching voice lessons to all ages and is passionate about using classical technique to expand and revolutionize voices, no matter what style they are singing in.
She currently resides in Edmond, OK with her husband and two daughters.