Massenet and His Letters

Mary Dibbernjoined The Dallas Opera as Music Director for Education and Family Programming in June 2012. She is an adjunct faculty member of the University of North Texas, USA, where she teaches French Diction for singers. She is an internationally known specialist in the field of vocal coaching and recital accompaniment, with appearances in Europe, the United States and Asia. Dibbern was graduated summa cum laude from SMU with a Master of Music in accompaniment under the direction of Maestro Paul Vellucci. She resided in France from 1978 to 2009, where she studied with Nadia Boulanger and Pierre Bernac and was guest coach for the Opera National de Paris, and all of the major French opera companies. She also worked in Switzerland, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia, and in Shanghai where she was in charge of musical and language preparation for the first French-language productions. In the US, she was guest coach at Seattle Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Memphis and Hawai'i Opera Theatre, USA. She was Head of Music at Minnesota Opera for three seasons, where she collaborated closely with composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell on their world premiere ""Silent Night"" which subsequently won the Pulitzer Price for Music 2012. Mary Dibbern is the author of seven books on French music published by Pendragon Press and is the Editorial Consultant for Musik Fabrik's publications of works by French composer Jacques Leguerney She is a recording artist for Harmonia Mundi France, Claves and Maguelone.