Biography
Shigemi Matsumoto has had a 22-year worldwide professional singing career, where she has performed with a number of national and international opera companies including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Brussels, Wolf Trap, Portland, Kansas City, San Antonio and Tuscon, among a list of others. Many of her roles included Mimi, Musetta, Susanna, Micaela, Norina, Adina, Despina, Rosina, Nanetta, Lauretta, Violetta, Abigail, Adele, Zerlina, Yolanda and Frasquita. She has sung with national and international symphony orchestras including San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minnesota, Houston, The Boston Pops, New Orleans, Lourdes (France), San Antonio and Denver. She has given more than 300 solo recitals in such major music capitals as New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Tokyo, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Seattle, Houston and Dallas.
She has recorded two CDs with Luciano Pavarotti and has sung with countless luminary singers and conductors of our generation.
Aside from her teaching at CSUN, Ms. Matsumoto is a longtime member of the voice faculty at CSULB, and after 19 years, she retired from the voice faculty of the University of Southern California (USC). She was honored in 2016 as a CSUN Distinguished Alumnus.
Many of her students have performed with major opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Opera, San Diego Opera and Cincinnati Opera. Others have performed with international opera companies in Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Brazil, Chile and Malta.