Dr. Christine Isley-Farmer

Professor Emeritus

Years of Service: 1985 - 2020

Dr. Christine Isley-Farmer

Departments / Programs

Degree Information

  • DMA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1992)
  • MM, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1972)
  • BM, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1968)

Biography

Christine Isley-Farmer, coordinator and professor of voice at Middle Tennessee State University, has extensive experience in opera and concert. She has performed in opera houses in Europe and with regional companies in the United States. Most notable in Europe are her performances in theaters in Austria, Switzerland, England, and Ireland. In the US, she has sung with the Des Moines Opera Festival, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, and the Colorado Lyric Theater, to name a few. Isley-Farme...

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Christine Isley-Farmer, coordinator and professor of voice at Middle Tennessee State University, has extensive experience in opera and concert. She has performed in opera houses in Europe and with regional companies in the United States. Most notable in Europe are her performances in theaters in Austria, Switzerland, England, and Ireland. In the US, she has sung with the Des Moines Opera Festival, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, and the Colorado Lyric Theater, to name a few. Isley-Farmer's recital and oratorio appearances, both national and international, demonstrate a wide variety of repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music.

Since 1997, Isley-Farmer has been a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique. She trained at the Alexander Alliance in Philadelphia, PA and then earned her certification with Alexander Technique International. She has conducted Alexander Technique workshops throughout the Southeastern region of the US and teaches the Alexander Technique and voice annually for the month-long TN Governor's School for the Arts. She has published several articles on the Alexander Technique in the widely-distributed Journal of Singing and in the publication of Alexander Technique International and presented at the 12th Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities.

Students of Isley-Farmer have won and placed in the finals of both regional and national competitions. Her students have entered prestigious programs at the graduate level both nationally and abroad. Former students have gone on to earn doctoral degrees, teach at the collegiate level, as well as to pursue professional singing careers in the US and abroad. She also taught the first MTSU student to be awarded the coveted Fulbright Scholarship for study in Europe. Most recently, one of her students won the Donizetti Award at the Orpheus National Vocal Competition in the Student Category.

Isley-Farmer presently serves as treasurer and board member for the Tennessee Sate Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. As past president, she spearheaded the activation of this state chapter. A native of North Carolina, she holds the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the DMA in Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

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