DEBORAH STERNBERG, described by critics as a “spine-tingling soprano” (Ben Demers, DC Theatre Scene), is praised for her flexibility, stage presence, and radiance of tone. Favorite performances include art songs of Lili and Nadia Boulanger with Cantate Chamber Singers and Washington Master Chorale respectively; a duet recital of the story of Orpheus; featured soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra’s Play! Video Game Symphony show at Wolf Trap Theatre; and recitals for the Friday Morning Music Club (Washington, DC) and Music at Penn Alps (Cumberland, Md). She has been the featured soloist in works by Benjamin Britten and Maurice Saylor during the Cantate Chamber Singers’ performance on WETA-FM’s Front Row Washington program.
In the summer of 2012, Ms.Sternberg premiered the role of Piney in Andrew E. Simpson’s opera The Outcasts of Poker Flat, which was presented at the Capital Fringe Festival and the Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage Festival. Ms. Sternberg is a winner of the 2007 state competitions of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and has been featured as a soloist on recordings of the Cathedral Choral Society, Cantate Chamber Singers, and the St. Catherine of Siena Choir.
Ms.Sternberg sang Canadian composer Gabriel Thibaudeau’s original score to the 1923 silent film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, composed for soprano, theatre organ, and violin, at the American Film Institute in Maryland in 2013.
She has appeared as soloist with the Fairfax Symphony, and on the Kennedy Center concert stage. Her first full-length CD, Birds of Love and Prey, features new music written for Soprano and was released by the Naxos label in 2020. The album received the 2021 DC WAMMIE award for Best Classical Album.
Ms. Sternberg currently sings as a Professional Core member with the Washington Master Chorale, where she received the Inaugural Hinkle/Dower Award for Excellence, and with The Washington Chorus. She is the Cantorial Soloist at Congregation Or Chadash (Damascus, Md), Quartet Lead and Soprano at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church (Bethesda, Md), and Cantor at St. Ann Roman Catholic Church (Washington, DC).
Ms. Sternberg has a thriving voice studio and leads workshops for adult choirs to enhance singers’ technique. In 2024, she became a registered Teaching Artist with the Maryland State Art Council, and has completed coursework in Trauma-Informed Practice for Arts Educators.
Ms.Sternberg's teachers include Bonnie Kunkel, Maureen Budway (Duquesne University), Linda Mabbs (University of Maryland), and James MacDonald (University of Maryland); and has coached with Robert Shafer, Evelyn Lear, Robert Baker, and Tom Caruso.