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Ms. Delia Surratt
Delia Surratt, professor of Vocal Technique at Loyola University Chicago’s John Felice Rome Center and an acclaimed international vocal artist, offered a free lecture and concert series. She was the first guest of the Catholicism and the Art Series, designed to promote cultural productions, both classical and contemporary, that illuminate the rich heritage of art in Catholic culture.
On March 13th Ms. Surratt gave a free lecture entitled “Unleashed Emotion: Opera’s Transformation of Sacred Music.”
She also prepared a special musical program for the free concert she offered on March 14th.This program contained musical works that date from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries: Giulio Caccini (1550–1610), Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1660–1725), Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) and others.
The California-born Surratt began her musical studies in Los Angeles where she obtained a B.A. in music from Immaculate Heart College and soon after studied at the Music Academy of the West in California and at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts.
Surratt then moved to Italy where she received scholarships to do post-graduate studies at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. While there, she studied vocal technique with the renowned Maestro Sona Ardontz and performed at major theatres and concert halls around Europe and Africa.
Performing symphonic and chamber music, as well as an operatic repertoire, Surratt has sung in a plethora of Italian opera houses including La Scala in Milan, Il Regio in Turin, Il Massimo in Palermo, La Fenice in Venice, Il Regio in Parma, and Il Petruzelli in Bari. She has spent three years, in collaboration with the Vatican, as Maestro of Vocal Technique for the boys’ choir of the Sistine Chapel.
Surratt currently sings for national radio and television companies such as NBC and RTSI in America, RAI in Italy, ORTF in France, and ZDF and SR in Germany, along with recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.
In addition, Surratt is a professor of Vocal Technique for the State Conservatory of Music S. Cecilia in Rome and has been a professor of voice for over 30 years in various state conservatories of music in Italy. She is also a vocal professor for the City School of Music in Viterbo, and for several years worked as an external faculty member of the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.
