Operatic soprano Andrea Chenoweth Wells ’00 has thrilled audiences from Cleveland to Carnegie Hall with her lush, powerhouse vocals.

But her family — a musical dynasty to rival the von Trapps — served as her first audience.

Her father, University of Dayton professor emeritus Richard Chenoweth, remembers driving back from visiting the grandparents in Philadelphia: “Andrea and her sister Erica and her brother Chris had watched The Sound of Music on one trip, and they sang the entire score on the way home.”

Wells’ mother, Marianne Chenoweth, is a flute player who hails from a celebrated musical family. Her father, Alan Abel, a music professor and percussionist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, died last year at 91 from COVID-19. Her uncle, Bruce Abel, was a widely recorded singer of German lieder songs.

“I couldn’t escape music,” Wells said.

But it was Wells’ maternal grandmother, Janet Abel, a professional operatic singer, who first taught her to sing arias.

“Grammy had high musical standards, but we had so much fun doing it together that it didn’t feel strict,” she said. “And she never told me anything was too hard.”

Wells earned her undergraduate degree in English and communication management from UD, planning to work in arts administration. Yet she somehow felt unfulfilled after landing her dream job at the Santa Fe Opera right after college.

“A wise friend told me that she saw me happiest when I came home from practicing with the church choir,” Wells recalled.

Wells decided to pursue a master’s of music in voice from the Cleveland Institute of Music. “I knew through my family that a career in music was possible, but I also knew what kind of hustle it would take to make it happen,” she said.

CARNEGIE HALL IN A BLIZZARD

Wells’ first big break came while she was an apprentice training with the Lyric Opera Cleveland. When a cast member experienced a death in the family, she temporarily took over the role of Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus.

“I stepped in and did what they needed,” she recalled. “That established good habits for the future. They were really impressed, and I got hired back.”

Getting hired back, it turns out, is one of Wells’ specialties. “My success is based on consistency,” she said.

A two-time regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, Wells has performed extensively with the Cleveland Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Commonwealth Opera, Dayton Opera, Springfield Symphony and the Bach Society of Dayton.

Career highlights include touring Japan with Dayton Philharmonic conductor Neal Gittleman, whom she describes as “a mentor and a big supporter.”

During the tour in Japan, Wells met conductor Hiroya Aoki, who hired her in 2013 to perform Verdi’s Requiem with the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

“The concert took place during one of the most epic blizzards in New York City history, but the house was sold out and full,” she said. “It was unreal to be there and to think of all the people who were there before you.”

MOLDING FUTURE SINGERS

Wells takes equal joy in her role as an artist-in-residence at UD, where she has taught voice and opera for the past 12 years.

“It’s very gratifying to help students figure out who they are as artists and as people,” she said.

“It’s very gratifying to help students figure out who they are as artists and as people.”

In the midst of a hectic schedule of teaching and performing, Wells earned her doctorate in music from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music.

“She’s an unavoidable talent,” said Kenneth Shaw, an acclaimed bass-baritone who teaches voice at the conservatory and has performed with Wells at the Dayton Opera. “She has a glorious sound, rich in color, with an even vibrato, yet with a ringing to it that tickles our ears. She has a huge range, and she can create a beautiful soft sound or a very dramatic one.”

After teaching a master class with Wells at UD, Shaw learned that she is equally gifted as a teacher.

“I was very impressed with her students’ progress and the way that they talk about their singing,” he said.

Chenoweth, who taught horn at UD for 33 years, takes no credit for his daughter’s success, either as a performer or professor.

“I tried never to be a stage-door parent; she has done all of this on her own,” he said. “She has such a gentle, sweet spirit that a lot of people don’t understand that she has an iron will.”

He does take great pride in his daughter’s accomplishments, however — not only in her artistry and spectacular vocal range but also in her collaborative spirit and in the way she champions contemporary music as well as the work of women composers. “We have performed in recitals together, and she is very easy to work with,” he said.

Wells’ performance of Der Rosenkavalier — a duet excerpt with the Dayton Bach Society — proved particularly memorable, Chenoweth said: “There’s a big climax at the end of the piece, and if you go down to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, you can probably hear it today.”

Her parents taught her the delicate balancing act between family life and a career in music.

“They taught me that family is first and everything else is second,” she said.

Her husband, Philip Wells ’00, teaches government in the Dayton area. “I have a wonderful, incredibly supportive spouse who is a UD alum,” she said. “When I am home, I am home.”

COVID-19 forced her to abandon her policy of not practicing at home, much to the dismay of the couple’s three collies.

“They don’t want to hear me caterwauling all day,” she joked. “They are very mouthy, and they like to be the ones making all the noise.”

Wells can’t wait to get back to making a beautiful ruckus with her fellow humans.

“So much of what is really fun is working together with musical colleagues and creating things together,” she said.