When soprano KELLEY NASSIEF sang Elijah with the Gewandhausorchester and Kurt Masur on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of Mendelssohn's death, the Leipziger Volkszeitung wrote, "If the angels in heaven really sing, please let them do it like Nassief. Her voice combines the best of two worlds: It has bel canto size, warmth, and height, and yet is svelte with a youthful sparkle. She was a perfect choice for the part."

Ms. Nassief’s engagements in the 2000/2001 season include her return to Atlanta Opera as Liu in Turandot; the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Company of Philadelphia; Voices of Light at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; various works at the Grant Park Music Festival; and the Brahms Requiem with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Future engagements for Kelley Nassief include the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Mozart’s Requiem with the Saint Louis Symphony, and Verdi’s Requiem with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra during the 2001/2002 season, and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin with Opera National du Rhin in 2002/2003.

In the summer of 2000 Ms. Nassief performed Mimi in La Bohème with Glimmerglass Opera. In the 1999/2000 season Kelley Nassief sang Mimi in La Bohème with the Atlanta Opera; the Countess in Le nozze di Figarowith Arizona Opera; and Liù in Turandot with Eugene Opera. Her orchestral engagements included Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the New Jersey Symphony; Strauss' Four Last Songs with the Mexico City Philharmonic; and Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony with the Eugene Symphony. She also appeared in recital in Cerritos, California, La Jolla, California, and on Japanese television.

Kelley Nassief has appeared several times with the New York Philharmonic and Kurt Masur, most recently in a performance of Peer Gynt that was televised nationally on PBS' "Live from Lincoln Center", and also in Elijah and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. She has also performed the Beethoven with Masur and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Columbus Symphony. Other recent orchestral highlights for Ms. Nassief include Beethoven's "Ah, perfido!" and Mass in C with the New World Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas; Peer Gynt with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Charles Dutoit; Haydn's Die Jahreszeiten with the Orchestre Poitou Charentes; Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the East Texas Symphony; the Fauré Requiem with the Pacific Symphony; the Kaddish Symphony with the Jerusalem Symphony; Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony; Britten’s War Requeim with the Des Moines Symphony and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 ("Lobgesang") with the Jacksonville Symphony. At the Tanglewood Festival she has sung selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Seiji Ozawa, as well as songs by Bernstein and Duparc.

Ms. Nassief's other operatic engagements have included Mimi with both the Arizona Opera and the Colorado Opera Festival; Micaela in Carmen with the Minnesota Opera, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Saarbrücken Opera; and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Eugene Opera. Her other operatic roles include Desdemona in Otello, the title role in Susannah, and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin.

Kelley Nassief is a 2001 winner of the Sullivan Foundation Grant, a 1996 Laureate of the Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Oratorio and Song Competition, a 1997 winner of a Richard Tucker Career Grant, and a winner of the 1995 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.