Gail Dobish

Class of 1976: Opera singer

A distinguished 20-year career in opera saw soprano Gail Dobish singing more than 40 major operatic roles with more than 60 opera companies throughout the United States, Europe and Asia — including New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

She was born Gail Lynn Dobish in February 1954 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. A music major, she came from a very economically disadvantaged family and attended Ripon on a music scholarship. She was the first in her extended family to attend college.

She had not even heard a complete opera until she was a college sophomore, but her Ripon education opened her world. “The quality of instruction and the support that I got at Ripon was invaluable in preparing me for the next steps of my performing career,” Dobish said. “I would never have gotten the kind of individual attention at a larger school, at a university or conservatory. I would not have gotten both the well-rounded education and the individual instruction needed to make me stand out in the competitive world of opera.”

She went on to receive a master’s degree in voice and opera from Juilliard School of Music in New York City. A year later, she won the 1981 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was put under contract with the Metropolitan Opera of New York.

Other honors include winning the 1982 Young Concert Artists Guild Award, the Minna Kaufmann Ruud Distinguished Performance Award and presenting her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall.

Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in the 1983-1984 season as Fiakermilli in the Richard Strauss Opera “Arabella.” Repertory roles at the Met include Adele in “Die Fledermaus,” by Johann Strauss Jr., and Olympia in “Tales of Hoffman,” by Jacques Offenbach.

Performances were given across the United States as well as in Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, including performances with Placido Domingo. She performed in six languages.

As her opera career slowed, Dobish said, the basic liberal arts skills she learned at Ripon also stood her well when she returned to school to earn a master’s degree in social work from New York University in 2002. She moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2008 and worked there as a social worker.

Ripon presented her with the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1988 and the Distinguished Alumni Citation in 1993.

“Equally as important as what I learned in the classroom (at Ripon) was the support, guidance and individual attention I received from the faculty and administration. I have a strong abiding respect and affection for Ripon and many people I met there,” Dobish said.