BIOGRAPHY
"Transparency and integrity are core values in my life and work. I dig deep to ground every performance in honest humanity. As a singer-actor, my goal is a seamlessly-integrated performance, one in which you will know that, when that character sings, it is because their emotions have outgrown spoken word, and when they dance, it is because no movement less expressive will do." - Norah Long
Born in Hollywood into a musically-inclined family legacy which includes 1940s Metropolitan Opera star tenor Richard Crooks and father Ron Long who performed in trio Buffalo Fish with Stephen Stills and Peter Tork, Norah Long has followed suit, establishing her own vibrant career spanning music, theater, concert stage, film, and broadcast.
Award-winning talent Norah Long has made an indelible mark at home in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She has performed leading roles on almost every local union stage. Nationally, she has received critical acclaim for her work at theaters including Florida Stage, Denver's Arvada Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Riverside Theater (Vero Beach) and Arts Garage (Delray Beach). Her concert credits span the US, Europe, Asia, and Cuba where she premiered arrangements of Broadway medleys for symphony orchestra and solo voice by Tony Award winner Robert Elhai at Havana’s nationally-televised Cubadisco Festival. Ms. Long has also gained a stellar reputation in opera and operetta, garnering accolades from press and audience alike in dozens of principal roles. Ms. Long has collaborated on numerous new works, working alongside Bobby McFerrin, Jeffrey Hatcher, Ricky Ian Gordon, John DeLancie, Francesca Zambello, Chan Poling, Stephen Paulus, Rachel Sheinkin, Rachel Portman, Marsha Norman, Kira Obolensky, and many others in the developmental process. Premieres include over a dozen fully-produced musicals, multiple orchestral works as a soloist with Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and countless smaller musical compositions including Mark Warhol’s song cycle "Crazy Rabbit Songs" (innova) for which she memorized seventy pages of random-note music. Norah has been featured on numerous CDs including: “Sweethearts of Song: The Duets of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald” for Skylark Opera; "Christmas Around the World” with Lorie Line; and her self-produced album, "View from Violet Hill.” She also loves to perform in smaller venues, often creating and tailoring programs for private events and businesses.
Offstage, Ms. Long is active as a director, teacher, speaker, and composer. She was Music Director for Tiger Lion Arts’ recurring national tours of Nature, A Walking Play, in which she also portrayed the spirit of Nature, winning a 2018 Emmy Award for the PBS documentary Nature: Walking with Emerson and Thoreau. She is adjunct faculty for the College of Fine Arts at North Central University where she teaches both private studio and classroom courses and directs theater productions. She was a founding member and Lead Teaching Artist with Upstream Arts for 10 years, offering multidisciplinary arts-based curriculum to individuals with disabilities to strengthen social, communication, and self-advocacy skills. She has served for 29 years as cantor and soloist for St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth, MN, a 5000-member congregation. She is a guest speaker and has often been on air for local arts-news features, most frequently on Minnesota Public Radio as both performer and guest host. And in her spare time, Norah creates visual art, writes, and composes original music, including a currently-in-process original Mass for chorus, orchestra, and soloists.
Ms. Long has been recognized in the press' Best-Of lists many times (recently for roles including Mother Superior in Sister Act, Marie Lombardi in Lombardi, and Magda in Menotti's The Consul) and has been profiled in feature articles for newspapers and magazines around the United States and abroad, including American Record Guide, Opera Today Magazine, and Backstage Magazine.
3/2023
"Transparency and integrity are core values in my life and work. I dig deep to ground every performance in honest humanity. As a singer-actor, my goal is a seamlessly-integrated performance, one in which you will know that, when that character sings, it is because their emotions have outgrown spoken word, and when they dance, it is because no movement less expressive will do." - Norah Long
Born in Hollywood into a musically-inclined family legacy which includes 1940s Metropolitan Opera star tenor Richard Crooks and father Ron Long who performed in trio Buffalo Fish with Stephen Stills and Peter Tork, Norah Long has followed suit, establishing her own vibrant career spanning music, theater, concert stage, film, and broadcast.
Award-winning talent Norah Long has made an indelible mark at home in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She has performed leading roles on almost every local union stage. Nationally, she has received critical acclaim for her work at theaters including Florida Stage, Denver's Arvada Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Riverside Theater (Vero Beach) and Arts Garage (Delray Beach). Her concert credits span the US, Europe, Asia, and Cuba where she premiered arrangements of Broadway medleys for symphony orchestra and solo voice by Tony Award winner Robert Elhai at Havana’s nationally-televised Cubadisco Festival. Ms. Long has also gained a stellar reputation in opera and operetta, garnering accolades from press and audience alike in dozens of principal roles. Ms. Long has collaborated on numerous new works, working alongside Bobby McFerrin, Jeffrey Hatcher, Ricky Ian Gordon, John DeLancie, Francesca Zambello, Chan Poling, Stephen Paulus, Rachel Sheinkin, Rachel Portman, Marsha Norman, Kira Obolensky, and many others in the developmental process. Premieres include over a dozen fully-produced musicals, multiple orchestral works as a soloist with Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and countless smaller musical compositions including Mark Warhol’s song cycle "Crazy Rabbit Songs" (innova) for which she memorized seventy pages of random-note music. Norah has been featured on numerous CDs including: “Sweethearts of Song: The Duets of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald” for Skylark Opera; "Christmas Around the World” with Lorie Line; and her self-produced album, "View from Violet Hill.” She also loves to perform in smaller venues, often creating and tailoring programs for private events and businesses.
Offstage, Ms. Long is active as a director, teacher, speaker, and composer. She was Music Director for Tiger Lion Arts’ recurring national tours of Nature, A Walking Play, in which she also portrayed the spirit of Nature, winning a 2018 Emmy Award for the PBS documentary Nature: Walking with Emerson and Thoreau. She is adjunct faculty for the College of Fine Arts at North Central University where she teaches both private studio and classroom courses and directs theater productions. She was a founding member and Lead Teaching Artist with Upstream Arts for 10 years, offering multidisciplinary arts-based curriculum to individuals with disabilities to strengthen social, communication, and self-advocacy skills. She has served for 29 years as cantor and soloist for St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth, MN, a 5000-member congregation. She is a guest speaker and has often been on air for local arts-news features, most frequently on Minnesota Public Radio as both performer and guest host. And in her spare time, Norah creates visual art, writes, and composes original music, including a currently-in-process original Mass for chorus, orchestra, and soloists.
Ms. Long has been recognized in the press' Best-Of lists many times (recently for roles including Mother Superior in Sister Act, Marie Lombardi in Lombardi, and Magda in Menotti's The Consul) and has been profiled in feature articles for newspapers and magazines around the United States and abroad, including American Record Guide, Opera Today Magazine, and Backstage Magazine.
3/2023