Took the breath away from every listener.

Los Alamos Monitor

Provided true frissons.

Baton Rouge Advocate

She is a fine, fine singer.

Seattle Post Intelligencer

W A N D A

B R I S T E R,

Mezzo-Soprano

Released: (2022)

CD:

Madeleine Dring: Lady Composer: 30 Previously Unreleased Songs from Theatre, West End, Stage, and Radio. Wanda Brister with Courtney Kenny, Nuala Willis, and Matt Cooksey.

Cambria Music (Spotify/YouTube).

Reviews:

"A blue print, from which others singers can develop the repertoire... a satisfying first listen... No shortage of sarcastic humour... illustrates her music for a sophisticated cabaret audience."

Dan Adams, The Magazine of the Light Music Society

"this may be the most entertaining and interesting release yet. It also marks the end of an era because of the recent death of . . . Courtney Kenny. Brister deploys her rich, lucious voice with impressive assurance and a wonderful sense of style and fun."

Gregory Berg, Journal of Singing

Book: (2020)

Clemson University Press

(Wanda Brister & Jay Rosenblatt) 362 pp.

https://libraries.clemson.edu/press/books/madeleine-dring/ Also available through Liverpool University Press, Oxford University Press, and Amazon.com

Reviews:

"A fulfilling and insightful book on multiple levels that will appeal to anyone interested in the byways of light music as well as to those wishing to make a study."

Dan Adams, The Magazine of the Light Music Society

"Wanda Brister and Jay Rosenblatt have done a meticulous job bringing Dring's remarkable story to life... This welcome new biography sheds light on an iconoclastic composer's brilliant musical mind, and compels us to reconsider her compositional output. The lady composer Madeleine Dring certainly
deserves our greater attention."
Stephen Caplan, The Double Reed

"This thoroughly researched collaboration is a valuable addition to the literature about Madeleine Dring."
Debra Greschner, Journal of Singing

"Madeleine Dring, Lady Composer, is a work that should be acquired by all music libraries and read by all. It is an inspiring and thoughtful account of a remarkable person and a true creative."
George Caird, Double Reed News

"In Madeleine Dring: Lady Composer the authors have managed to convey the successful life of a working freelance woman composer. [...] An unbelievable amount of effort was obviously expended by the authors to trace and document her unpublished and unrecorded work but the best and most moving part of the book is the personal writing about daily life, music, art and war by the young Madeleine Dring."
Erin Hackel, Kapralova Society Journal

"Madeleine Dring: Lady Composer tells the story of the London-born, twentieth-century composer in a detailed but engaging text. [...] Brister and Rosenblatt serve the composer well in this new biography, which . . .
should lead to more performances and recognition of Dring's music."
Bonny H. Miller, IAWM Journal

Recent Presentations:/Master Classes

Dring Lecture: 20th C British Song Literature:

University of Nebraska. 2023

Dring Lecture: 20th C British Song Literature: Florida State University. 2022

Cabaret Music of Madeleine Dring:

Women's Music Festival at MUW,

Columbus Mississippi. Presented March 2022 with Soprano Sofia Scattarreggia and Pianist Rebecca Golub (Eastman SoM)

Instrumental Music of Madeleine Dring:

Women's Music Festival at MUW,

Columbus Mississippi. March 2020

Master Class:

Mississippi State University

Starkville, Mississippi. March 2020

Recently Published Music of Madeleine Dring: Women Composers Festival of Hartford

Hartford, CT. March 2019

Cabaret Songs of Madeleine Dring:

Women's Music Festival at MUW

Columbus Mississippi. March 2019

Cabaret Songs of Madeleine Dring:

Mini lecture recital National Conference (NATS)

Las Vegas, NV 2018

Songs of Madeleine Dring:

Women's Music Festival at MUW

Columbus Mississippi. March 2018

Release of CD: December 2018

Cabaret Songs of Madeleine Dring (CD1251)

Cambria Music

17 Previously unrecorded songs with cabaret artist and pianist, Courtney Kenny, and Nuala Willis. Recorded in England May 2015. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dring+cabaret&ref=nb_sb_noss

(Available Spotify and YouTube)

WINNER: 2019 Solo/Chamber Album of the year: Light Music Society of Britain

Reviewed by Stefania de Kenessey in the IAWM Journal, Vol 26, No. 2 2020, pp. 31-32.

The performances are lively, entertaining, clever, stylistically apt and─equally importantly─cover a wide range of emotions, from hilarious comedy to serious introspection....

Each performer brings an intriguing personal connection to the music of Madeleine Dring.

Reviewed by Gregory Berg in the

Journal of Singing: (May 2019)

The voice itself is rich and opulent and she does not sound like she is scaling back its warmth or fullness... she is able to navigate these songs with a saucy, earthy ease and naturalness that make them come alive... Someone listening to this recording might very well be reminded of Eileen Farrell's groundbreaking album... Brister seems to approach these songs with a similar sense of fun tempered by the care one takes when singing something very special. There is love here.

Reviewed by Daniel Adams in Light Music Society Magazine (October 2019)

Brister’s voice is a pleasing mezzo soprano with barely a hint of her American accent in this highly anglicised set of song lyrics. Courtney Kenny himself is a voice in very fine fettle indeed! Willis only appears in Model Models, but her humorous delivery of the witty text is a joy.

Publications:

Article in Light Music Society Magazine, October 2019 entitled "Finding Madeleine."

Biography in International Alliance of Women in Music Journal, Fall 2019

Program Notes on Cupboard Love for Byre Opera of St Andrews University June 2019.

EDITOR AND COMPILER:

https://www.classicalvocalrep.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=dring+brister

Previously Unpublished Vocal Works by

Madeleine Dring:

Volume 1: CVR: 5111

Volume 2: CVR: 5139

Volume 3: CVR: 5142

Volume 4: CVR: 5148

Volume 5: CVR: 5153

Still More Art Songs, Arrangements, and Love Songs,

Volume 6: CVR: 5154

Volume 7: CVR: 5155

Volume 8: CVR: 5156

Volume 9: CVR: 5157

Reviewed by Kathleen Roland-Silverstein in the Journal of Singing, November 2018

We are fortunate indeed to have artist-scholars who turn their passion for art song performance into outstanding research... Dr. Wanda Brister has been a champion of the songs of British composer Madeleine Dring... (Her) contribution to the scholarship concerning MD is impressive...

Madeleine Dring:

Cupboard Love, a one-act opera