Education
DMA, Vocal Performance, The Hartt School, University of Hartford
MS, Organizational Psychology, University of Hartford
MM, Vocal Performance, California State University, Long Beach
BM, Vocal Performance, Arizona State University
BM, Choral & General Music Education, Arizona State University
Soprano Michelle Murray Fiertek is a performer, voice educator, scholar, and arts administrator whose career spans classical and operatic repertoire, musical theatre, and commercial vocal styles. Her performance career has taken her throughout the United States and Spain, as well as to Japan and a wide range of professional settings, from Walt Disney World and cruise ships to Carnegie Hall, where she was a featured concert soloist. She has taught voice at the collegiate level for more than two decades and currently teaches voice and voice-related courses across Vocal Studies, Musical Theatre, and Hartt Community Division at The Hartt School.
Dr. Fiertek is passionate about helping singers develop healthy, flexible, and expressive voices while discovering their own artistic identities. Her teaching draws on a broad performance background and an interest in the technical and acoustic differences among vocal genres. She encourages students to understand how timbre, resonance, registration, language, and style interact, giving them the tools to move confidently between repertoire and performance traditions.
Her scholarly and artistic interests include American, Spanish, and Latin American art song, as well as repertoire that crosses boundaries between art song and musical theatre. She has released three recordings, including Every Tiny Thing, a collection of contemporary American art song praised by American Record Guide as “a wonderful presentation” of works at the intersection of art song, folk song, and popular song. Her work gives students opportunities to engage with this repertoire and with the research, performance, and interpretive questions that inform her work.
Fiertek is especially committed to mentoring students as they develop independent voices as artists and scholars. She encourages students to ask questions, explore repertoire beyond familiar boundaries, and pursue original projects that connect their individual interests with their developing artistic practice. Through cross-genre exploration, students deepen their understanding of vocal technique, stylistic choices, and their own artistic identities while developing the versatility to move thoughtfully and confidently between performance traditions.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), Member
National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Member