Elisabeth Harrington has worked as a performer and music educator for 30 years. While growing up in her hometown of Greensboro, NC, Elisabeth studied piano, dance and flute and performed in musical theater productions. Incredible good luck led her to Milan, Italy as a high school senior where she happily discovered the world of opera. She returned home to study Music and Anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and, subsequently, Vocal Performance at UNC-Greensboro, earning the M.M. degree. Elisabeth taught voice at UNC-Chapel Hill from 1991-2000 while also pursuing local and regional performance opportunities. Highlights from that time include productions with the Aspen Opera Theater Center, Sarasota Opera, Greensboro Opera, Triangle Opera, and Cape Fear Regional Theater, and also as a Metropolitan Opera competition regional finalist in 1996.

Elisabeth returned to school in the early 2000's to pursue the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy at CU-Boulder, where she also was a Lead Teacher for the College of Music in the nationally recognized Graduate Teacher Program. She moved to Arcata in 2006 and has been teaching full time at Cal Poly Humboldt ever since. Elisabeth teaches Voice and Vocal Performance and an Area E course with an Arts focus. She also directs the Opera Workshop ensemble which provides singers the opportunity to gain experience developing and maintaining a character in costume while working with scene partners and an accompanist. Every two years, students in the Opera Workshop ensemble audition for and participate in a large-scale collaborative musical production with live band and full set.
Elisabeth enjoys performing opera and musical theater as much as her teaching schedule permits and in a variety of settings. Local stage credits include Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd and Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Ferndale Repertory Theater, Little Buttercup in HMS Pinafore with North Coast Repertory Theater (NCRT), and as singer and music director for “Opera in the Park” with Plays in the Park. She is also the conductor and co-founder of the local chamber choir A Company of Voices, active since 2014.