A South Carolina native, Myra Cordell spent a number of years in Europe where she had a busy career in both opera and concert. She had originally gone there on a scholarship to study with the late Tito Gobbi and then lived and sang mostly in Italy but also appeared in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Hungary. She was especially appreciated there for her Bellini and Verdi roles.Ms. Cordell has appeared with Hawaii Opera as Adina in Elixir of Love and as Marguerite in Faust; with Chicago Opera Theater as Violetta in La Traviata, and also as Violetta with the Hong Kong Opera Society and Opera Illinois, as Gilda in Rigoletto with the latter and as Norina in Don Pasquale with the South Florida Opera Company .
She has appeared as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Sherill Milnes and the Greenville (SC) Symphony, performed Lucia with Opera Illinois, Cio-Cio-San in Butterfly with the Holland Park Festival in London, England and with Opera Cork in Ireland and she is more frequently heard as soloist with orchestras here, in Italy and recently in a Gala concert at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. For the past six summers she has been Artist in Residence on the opera faculty of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities.
A graduate of Furman University with a Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University, Ms. Cordell was a prize winner in the Francisco Vinas Competition in Spain, the Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Italy and she was awarded the Maria Malibran Award in Parma.
