In addition to singing in the full-time chorus at Lyric Opera of Chicago, soprano Desirée Hassler has sung and covered roles at Lyric in Cendrillon, West Side Story, Tannhäuser, Oklahoma!, Manon, Macbeth, Boris Godunov, Show Boat, Elektra, Dead Man Walking, and Der Rosenkavalier. Recent performances include soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem with the Eastern Illinois Symphony, Bach’s Mass in B minor with Chicago Bach Project (John Nelson, conductor), Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata with the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra, Ellen in Oklahoma! at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Kondja in The Rose of Stambul with Chicago Folks Operetta, soprano soloist in the Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem (Los Angeles, CA), Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the Prairie Ensemble, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, as well as Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Wichita Symphony.

A California native, Desirée has successfully competed from the regional to international levels at the Bel Canto Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, International Franz Liszt Competition and has received many distinguished awards. The soprano is musically curious and stylistically flexible and enjoys performing music from the Renaissance to the 21st century in recital, concert, opera, and performance art mediums. Highly sought after as a master clinician, Hassler enjoys sharing her expertise with voice and opera studios at universities across the country. Her voice can be heard on everything from commercial and film soundtracks to oratorio, opera and operetta, and even progressive heavy metal albums.

Hassler graduated in 2011 with a doctorate in Vocal Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also completed a master’s degree in 2003.  Dr. Hassler has served on the faculties of Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, IL) as a Bynam fellow at Gordon College (Wenham, Mass), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and currently serves on the voice faculty of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL where she teaches voice and music history courses.