Ellen Faull

Ellen Hartla Faull (14 October 1918 – 2 December 2008) was an American operatic soprano and voice teacher. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was primarily associated with New York City Opera, where she sang from 1947 until 1978 and created the role of Abigail Borden in Jack Beeson's opera Lizzie Borden in its 1965 world premiere. After her retirement from the opera stage, she taught singing at Sarah Lawrence College, the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School and later privately at her home in Camas, Washington.

Biography Ellen Faull was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a working-class family. During the Great Depression, she and her brothers and sisters went door-to-door selling their mother's home-baked bread to bring in extra money. She showed an early talent for singing and while still a teenager, her teacher introduced her to the conductor Eugene Ormandy who let her use his private box for all of the Philadelphia Orchestra's concerts. As a recitalist, Faull was a champion of contemporary American composers. Ned Rorem once described her voice as "a cloud of peridot chiffon", and she sang in the world premieres of several of his works, including the 1957 premiere of The Poet's Requiem for soprano, chorus and orchestra. When she moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1990 to be near her daughter, she taught singing both privately and at Portland State University's Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute, a summer program which she founded in 1992 with Ruth Dobson, a former voice professor at Portland State.