Jennifer Ciobanu, MM, DMA

About

Jennifer Ciobanu serves as the Assistant Professor of Music and comes to LCU by way of Texas, where she spent 13 years on the Voice Faculty of UT-Arlington serving as an Applied Voice Instructor and Director of Opera/Musical Theatre Workshop. During her tenure there, she appeared as a faculty artist in numerous recitals and as a soprano soloist for several DFW orchestras. Currently, she is the Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Louisiana, and as a collaborative pianist, performs with numerous high school choir programs throughout the region for contests, concerts, and festivals. She holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas, the Master of Music degree from UNC-Greensboro, both in Voice, and as an undergraduate, completed a Double Major in Piano and Vocal Performance from Southeastern Louisiana University. Her doctoral dissertation highlights the contributions of African-American composers to the American Art Song canon, and as a result of this research, she was invited to perform at the African-American Art Song Alliance.

Especially fond of Italian repertoire, Dr. Ciobanu has spent considerable time in Italy, performing in various summer festivals in conjunction with both American and Italian organizations. During her years there, she was a finalist in the Cagli International Vocal Competition, enjoyed an operatic debut, and taught voice at the Bernstein School of Musical Theatre. She is passionate about the Italian language, speaking it fluently, and served as the Italian Diction Coach for the Fort Worth Opera Studio for two seasons. As opportunity presents, she also serves the opera program at NSU in this capacity.

In addition to her experience in the world of classical and operatic singing, Dr. Ciobanu has performed extensively in the Christian contemporary, gospel, folk, and musical theatre genres touring with the former Glenn Draper Singers (Lake Junaluska), a professional 16-member troupe specializing in ‘Variety Show’ concerts. Here at LCU, she serves as the Musical Director for Theatre Louisiana Christian’s musical productions.

She is the mother of two and enjoys running, hiking, and biking in the Kisatchie National Forest.