An alumna of The Crowden School, Vanessa Langer is a voice instructor and featured soprano soloist for new works for soprano and orchestra. Vanessa brings an extensive experience in guiding students of all ages and backgrounds, cultivating a teaching style that incorporates a holistic approach, covering not only technical aspects but also the emotional and expressive dimensions of singing. A Bay Area native, Vanessa is the founder and director of the Firesong ensemble as well as a former core member of the Wild Rumpus
Ensemble. Various of her commission projects have been supported by major grants from the Zellerbach Foundation, New Music USA and Chamber Music of America. Featured soloist on the Pinna records label, Vanessa has given notable Bay Area premieres including Fausto Romitelli’s ‘Index of Metals’. Vanessa was named a New Horizon Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, served two Music Winter Residencies at the Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta Canada and won the Eisner Prize for Creative Achievement in the Arts and the Albert King Scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley.

Her earliest musical studies included coaching Bach cantatas with Anne Crowden or the Junior Bach Festival, productions of the San Francisco Girls Chorus and the children’s chorus in San Francisco Opera, as well as early music studies with David Tayler in the Collegium Musicum of UCBerkeley. Vanessa studied voice with Susanne Mentzer, Dawn Upshaw, and Laura Aikin as well as coached with breath specialist Deborah Birnbaum. She received a B.A. in Music from UCBerkeley, and M.M. cum laude in Classical Voice from DePaul University and a Master in Vocal Arts from Bard College Conservatory.

Vanessa lives with her son and husband in Milan, Italy where she is a vocal instructor and guides a vocal curriculum at the St Louis School of Milan.