Jennifer Diane Behnke

Dramatic soprano, Jennifer Diane Behnke, is the inaugural recipient of the Eugene L. Brister Memorial award

from the Wagner Society of New York. She is an alumna of Wagner Intensive at Baldwin Wallace University

performing parts of the roles of Sieglinde in Die Walk ȕre, Elsa in Lohengrin, Adriano in Rienzi and an invited

scholarship artist at Johanna Meier Opera Theatre Institute at Black Hills State University singing the role of Female

Chorus from Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. An active recitalist, she recently performed two works “Aria di Angelo” from

Pawel Łukaszewski's Resurrectio(US Premier) and Paschale Gaudium by Aurelio Porfiri, composed for dedicated to, and

given its world premier dedicated by Ms. Behnke. A regular leading lady with New York Opera Forum, Jennifer has

most recently performed Brȕnnhilde in Wagner’s Gőtterdämmerung and Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio. In the coming

months she will be seen in the title role of Suor Angelica(Puccini), Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni,(Mozart), The

Marschallin in Der Rosenkavelier(Strauss) and Marguerite in Faust(Gounod). Ms. Behnke has served as Director of

Sacred Heart Children's Schola since 2014, and watched with delight as the group has grown from 5 to a total of 20

musicians. As of December 2016, she joyfully serves as the newly appointed director of music at Sacred Heart

Church in Bloomfield, New Jersey.