View source for Jennifer Welch-Babidge Mormon Singer

[[Jennifer_Welch_Babidge.jpg|300px|thumb|alt=Jennifer Welch-Babidge Mormon Singer|right|frame|Photo by Logan Bradford]]

'''Jennifer Welch-Babidge''' is an award-winning soprano, opera singer, and actor. She is also a music professor at [[Brigham Young University]]. She is a member of [http://Mormon.org The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints].

Jennifer is a native of Aulander, North Carolina, and earned her master’s degree in vocal performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts.

She was awarded the prestigious ARIA Award and Richard Tucker Career Grant, both in 2001. She was also a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the spring of 1997 subsequently joined the company’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She was also honored with a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation and an award from the William Mattheus Sullivan Foundation.

Her recent roles include the title role of ''Suor Angelica'' for Utah Opera, Violetta in ''La Traviata'' for Utah Festival Opera, Norina in ''Don Pasquale'' for Houston Grand Opera, Adele in ''Die Fledermaus'' for San Francisco Opera, and Mimi in ''La Boheme'' with Utah Festival Opera. With the Metropolitan Opera, her roles include Marzelline in ''Fidelio'', Chloe in ''Queen of Spades'', Blondchen in ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', and Freia in ''Das Rheingold''. She has performed the title role in ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' with New York City Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Greensboro Opera Company. She made her San Francisco Opera debut as Blondchen in ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail''. She has also joined Houston Grand Opera for Norina in ''Don Pasquale'', Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Konstanze in ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'', Opera Colorado for Gilda in ''Rigoletto'', Opera Pacific for Violetta in ''La Traviata'', and both Opera Carolina and Washington Concert Opera for Leila in ''Pearl Fishers''. She appeared in The Metropolitan Opera Presents TV series in ''Le Nozze di Figaro''.

Jennifer has performed on the concert stage, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Nashville Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, and Schoenberg’s Moses Und Aron with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine. She has also appeared at Carnegie Hall with the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble.

She is married to opera baritone and music professor [[Darrell Babidge]]. They have four children.

[[Category:Mormon Life and Culture]]