Mezzo
Recipient of the Lois Zamora Award
Russian-American Mezzo-Soprano Mariya Kaganskaya will return to the Studio Artist Program at Florida Grand Opera in the 2018-19 Season, performing the roles of Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Mrs. Rockefeller and Natalia Trotsky (Frida), and Käthchen (Werther), and study-covering the role of Charlotte (Werther). In Summer 2017, she returned as a second-year Apprentice Singer to the Santa Fe Opera, where she premiered the role of Teacher in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, covered the role of Amelfa in The Golden Cockerel, and was featured in Justice at the Opera, hosted by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She then joined the Florida Grand Opera Studio for the 2017-18 Season, performing the roles of Page (Salome) and Paula (Florencia en el Amazonas) and study-covering the role of Herodias (Salome). Mariya completed the 2016-17 Season as a Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist at Arizona Opera, where she appeared as Tisbe (La Cenerentola), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), and Third Wood Sprite (Rusalka). Other recently performed roles include Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Serse (Serse), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Hostess (Boris Godunov), Marta (Iolanta), La Nourrice (Médée), Mexican Woman (A Streetcar Named Desire), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), and Julia Bertram (Mansfield Park). A former Mosher Studio Artist at Opera Santa Barbara and Young Artist at the iSing International Festival in China, as well as an alumna of the OperaWorks Advanced Artist Program and the Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Mariya earned her MM (’15) and PGD (’16) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Catherine Cook. Recent awards include: Florida East Coast Chapter Winner, NSAL Dorothy Lincoln-Smith Competition (2018), First Place, Gershwin International Music Competition (2017), Polk Young Artist Award, Orpheus Vocal Competition (2017), Young Artist Award, Pasadena Opera Guild (2016), Silver Award, Holt Competition (2016), Third Place, East Bay Opera League Competition (2016), San Francisco District Winner and Western Regional Encouragement Award, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2015), and First Place/Lotfi Mansouri Award, Pacific Musical Society Competition (2014). In September 2018, she will perform with the Round Rock Symphony as one of five award-winning finalists of the Butler Opera International Competition.
Photo by Gwen Juarez
