Laura Decher Wayte, Adjunct Instructor
 (soprano) B.A., University of Vermont M.M, San Francisco Conservatory of Music |
(541) 346-8594 | ldw@uoregon.edu
Laura Decher Wayte joined the UO voice faculty in 2007 as adjunct instructor. A soprano, she has been teaching voice since 1999, including at the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, Loyola Marymount University, and privately. Wayte is known for her opera, concert, and recital performing, singing both traditional and contemporary music.
Originally from Seattle, Wayte graduated with a master's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Opera Performance. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and German from the University of Vermont. Major voice teachers include Nina Hinson, Donald Stenberg, and Janet Parlova.
Since moving to Oregon, she has performed with the Oregon Mozart Players (Rodrigo's Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios, Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate and Copland's Tender Land Suite), Eugene Concert Choir (Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem) and debuted as Zerlina (Don Giovanni) with the Eugene Opera. In 2012 Wayte returns to Eugene Opera as Madame Mao in John Adams' Nixon in China.
On the stage, Wayte appeared as Micaela with Nevada Opera, and as a soloist in Beethoven's Choral Fantasia with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 2001, she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic singing music by Joaquin Rodrigo, and with the San Francisco Choral Society in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem. Other concert work includes Handel's Messiah with the Santa Fe Symphony, Orff's Carmina Burana with the Sacramento Choral Society, and a world premiere with Amsterdam's Nieuw Ensemble. Her operatic repertoire includes Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Mimi in La Bohème, Micaela in Carmen, and Beatrice in Beatrice et Benedict. A frequent soloist with Berkeley Opera, she performed Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Blanche in The Dialogues of the Carmelites, and the title role in Lecoq's La Fille de Madame Angot. A frequent soloist with Music at St. Albans in Los Angeles, Wayte performed oratorios by Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Brahms, and Bach.
As a mezzo-soprano, she performed the role of Hansel in San Francisco Opera Center's Hansel and Gretel, and the title role in Berkeley Opera's The Riot Grrrl on Mars, an adaptation of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri. Other mezzo-soprano roles include Angelina in La Cenerentola, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, and Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti.
Wayte has won numerous awards in various competitions, including the NATSAA Regional winner representing California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada in the 2002 finals. She also was a National Finalist in the 1999 Loren L. Zachary Society Young Artist Vocal Competition, and the Grand Prize Winner of the 1998 San Francisco Concerto Orchestra International Vocal Competition.
David Riley is associate professor and director of accompanying and chamber music at the University of Oregon, where he joined the music faculty in 2004. He holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music, studying with Anne Epperson and Jean Barr, respectively.
