Ashley Yvonne Wheat is our year 2000 winner. From a very young age Ms. Wheat found an innate joy in song and seemed to exhibit a natural affinity for music as well. Ashley hails from Issaquah, Washington where she began studying with her vocal instructor, Edie Delegans. She was a class of 2000 graduate from Issaquah High School.
Ashley Wheat now finds herself a singer, wife and mother. She has been training vocally for more than half her life, with her voice taking her from Seattle to Boston, Los Angeles, Aspen, Kansas City and abroad. She performs locally in Kansas City with the Lyric Opera Express program as well as the Kansas City Fine Arts Institute and is currently a student of tenor, Vinson Cole. Ashley is also finding time to instruct in Opera (vocal technique), Musical Theatre (vocal technique), and Voice Audition Preparation.
Ashley's studies began at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and were completed at the University of Southern California where she studied under the tutelage of Elizabeth Hynes. She attended the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2005 and 2006, working with Los Angeles Opera conductor, James Conlon, and current conductor in residence for the Seattle Symphony, Asher Fisch. She has performed with the Sammamish Symphony under conductor Joseph Scott, and was a finalist for the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition. This past summer, she made her international debut in Egilsstadir, Iceland in a recital series singing with her husband, tenor, Vigthor Zophoniasson.
Ashley is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a BM in Vocal Performance.
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/ashleyyvonnewheat
