Professor of Music
Applied Voice, Vocal Workshop, Opera Ensemble, Vocal Repertoire, Voice Diction

Margaret Astrup is well known for her interpretations of contemporary American music. She has premiered works by Sdymour Barab, Otto Luening, Ruth Schonthal, Judith Zaimont, Richard Auldon Clark, David Sampson, Jorge Martin, Phillip Springer, Howard Cass, Jerrold Morgulas, Douglas Anderson and Jeffrey Baker. With the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, she has performed Knoxville, Summer of 1915, by Samuel Barber (also broadcast on WNYC), Collages, by Ruth Schonthal , and songs by Otto Luening, William Grant Still, Seymour Barab and Richard Auldon Clark.

In New York she has appeared in many contemporary American operas including Three Sisters who are not Sisters, by Ned Rorem, Puss in Boots, by Jorge Martin, The Stronger, by Hugo Weisgall, and The Last Lover, by Robert Starer. In addition to contemporary American repertoire, Dr. Astrup has also been featured in Hums and Songs of Winnie-the Pooh, by Oliver Knussen (Manhattan Chamber Orchestra) and Kammermusik, by Finn Hoffding (Vinland Ensemble). For her staged premier of the one-woman operatic tour-de-force by Judith Wier, King Harald’s Saga, (Amercian Chamber Opera), she received critical acclaim as a "protean effortlessly able performer" (Andrew Porter, The London Financial Times). In the New York Premier of The White Rose, by Udo Zimmerman (Bel Canto Opera) she appeared "born to the role" (Bill Zachariasen, New York Daily News) and is Robert Starer’s The Last Lover (American Chamber Opera) she “caught the tone precisely” (Andrew Porter, The New Yorker).  Dr. Astrup has performed extensively with regional opera companies throughout the country as well as with several music festivals and educational touring companies.

As a frequent performer of American chamber music, concert works and art songs, Dr. Astrup has performed in such New York venues as Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, The Knitting Factory, and Trinity Church on Wall Street. Her recordings include songs by Otto Luening, William Grant Still, and Alec Wilder with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra on the Newport Classic label and Cosmos Cantata by Seymour Barab for the Kelios/Helicon label. Albany Records will soon release her recording of vocal works by Ruth Schonthal.  Together with violinist Eric Lewis (WCSU string faculty) she is currently recording works for violin and voice based on the folk music tradition of the British Isles.

Dr. Astrup earned her ME and Ed.D degrees in vocal pedagogy at Columbia University Teachers College. She also has an MM in vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a BM in applied voice from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. Dr. Astrup also did doctoral studies at Indiana University where she taught in the Department of Music Education.  She currently directs the vocal and opera programs at Western Connecticut State University.

Contact astrupm@wcsu.edu