About DoNNA

Soprano, Donna Zapola-Connolly, has garnered acclaim in her international career from locales as diverse as Bangkok, Cairo, Manila, Hong Kong, and Korea as well as the major opera and concert houses in New York City and elsewhere around the United States.

First coming to the opera-loving public’s attention with Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ acclaimed production of Il Viaggio a Reims, she has appeared as Violetta in La Traviata in Manila, Micaela in Carmen in Cairo, Agnese in Opera Orchestra of New York’s concert of Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda conducted by Eve Queler, and under the direction of Leonard Slatkin with the St. Louis Symphony in Janácek’s Danube at Avery Fischer Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center.  She has also toured the United States as Violetta in La Traviata with the New York City National Company and the Western Opera Theater touring company from San Francisco Opera.  The soprano has toured and performed extensively in the Middle and Far Eastern countries.

          Ms. Connolly debuted as Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus in New Orleans and Tampa and returned to Tampa Bay Opera as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot. Ms. Zapola-Connolly has also appeared as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte for Western Opera Theatre, Clorinda in Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ Cenerentola by Rossini, and the Countess and Fiordiligi in Mozart¹s

Le Nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte for the June Opera Festival of New Jersey.  She had performed the lead in the world premiere performance of the late Jerome Moross’ Sorry, Wrong Number.  

          In the concert repertoire, Donna has sung Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2., “Lobgesang”, with the Brevard Symphony; in Janácek’s Danube, Leonard Slatkin conducting; with the Pittsburgh Oratorio Society in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis; with the Albany Symphony Orchestra in Mozart’s Requiem, Paavo Järvi conducting; with the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra in Orff’s Carmina Burana; and with the Cayuga Chamber Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Carl St.Clair in Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. For the Millennium, Maestro Jesus López-Cobos selected her for his Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Millennium presentation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that sent patrons “soaring into the new era,” according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.

        A Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition winner, as well as a first prizewinner in the Liederkranz Foundation Competition, and the National Federation of Music Clubs National winner, the soprano is also a recipient of the Sullivan Foundation Grant and the Puccini Foundation Award.  Born in Johnstown, PA, she apprenticed at Chautauqua and Merola and was a member of the acclaimed Opera Music Theater International, Jerome Hines, Director. Donna was an Artist-in-Residence at the internationally admired Ruth Eckerd Hall and Performing Arts Center in Florida. In addition, she was presented with the “Distinguished Alumni” award from Seton Hill University and has had the honor of being selected for the distinguished Voice Internship at Mount Sinai’s Grabscheid Voice Center in New York City under the leadership of Dr. Peak Woo.

          Ms. Connolly has been a featured recitalist in a tour of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Holy Land sponsored by Bravo ProductionsCollege-Conservatory and the Abu Dhabi Music Foundation. Also appearing at Carnegie Hall as a soloist in Stephen Crawford’s Ave Maria Mass, she also performed Rodrigo’s Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra. 

          Dr.  Connolly holds a Master’s degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and has her DMA degree from Rutgers University.  She was a member of the faculty at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and has served as the Coordinator of Vocal Studies in The Music, Dance, and Theater Department at New Jersey City University.   Currently, Dr. Connolly serves as an Adjunct faculty member at Ottawa University in Surprise, AZ as well as Grand Canyon University in Glendale, AZ.

         Dr. Connolly is a member of The National American Teachers of Singing and the New York Singing Teachers Association. Dr. Connolly had the esteemed pleasure of serving as a faculty member of the AIMS Summer Music program in Graz, Austri,a and as a faculty member of Tarleton University’s Summer Music Study Abroad program in Tuscania, Italy under the auspices of the Lorenzo de Medici School in Italy.