Marlee Sabo

Marlee Sabo

Marlee Sabo began her teaching career in 1967 as a college faculty member and performing artist of the Wisconsin College-Conservatory of Music, a precursor to today’s WCM. As Chair of the Voice department, Ms. Sabo was the first faculty member to have a Conservatory Scholarship fund established in her name and, in 2002, received the first WCM Faculty Honors Award. As soloist, Ms. Sabo has performed at the Salzburg Festival, the Stuttgart Staatstheater and on German television. U.S. solo performances include the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Lyric Opera and Chicago’s Grant Park. She has appeared as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Florentine Opera, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra and is co-founder of the Washington Island Music Festival. She has recorded on the Nonesuch and Turnabout labels.

Ms. Sabo’s work at the Conservatory has included numerous recitals, premieres of new music and Opera Workshop productions. Her students have gone on to sing roles in opera and musical theatre, teach singing at all levels and sing locally in church and community choirs. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University School of Music, Ms. Sabo was awarded a certificate from the Akademie Mozarteum in Salzburg and was a Fulbright Scholar in Stuttgart, Germany. She has been inducted into the Stark County Citizens Wall of Fame in the McKinley Museum and National Memorial in her hometown of Canton, Ohio.

Ms. Sabo is married to Stephen Colburn, retired Principal Oboist of the Milwaukee Symphony and co-founder of the Washington Island Music Festival. Their daughter Sara is a member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus and son Benjamin is an Attorney and Country Prosecutor in Hastings, MN.