Christina Balsam Curren, a native of California, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of California at Davis. She continued her studies in piano chamber music, vocal accompanying, opera coaching, German diction, early music performance practice, and voice at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst “Mozarteum” in Salzburg, Austria, where she also taught for one year in the Opera School and interned at the Landestheater Salzburg. This was followed by a seven-year engagement as repertory coach at the Niedersächsische Staatsoper in Hannover, Germany.

Professor Balsam Curren’s extensive freelance coaching, vocal and instrumental accompanying, and accompanying for diverse choral groups, opera workshops, and voice studios have spanned two continents and five decades. She has performed in various capacities and given classes in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, England, and the United States. Since 1989 Balsam Curren has taught at the Eastman School of Music, where she is Associate Professor of German and German Lyric Diction and a vocal coach. Her special area of interest, and the main focus of her work with students, is the relationship of expressive language to communicative singing.