Soprano Maureen McKay is praised and celebrated for her silvery soprano and dynamic character portrayals. Maureen’s 2024-2025 season features a return to one of her signature roles, Gretel in her house debut with Utah Opera for Hänsel und Gretel. She returns to the roster of The Metropolitan Opera to cover Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and joins the Symphony of the Americas for a series of holiday concerts, led by Luke Frazier.
Maureen’s previous season featured multiple assignments with The Metropolitan Opera, singing the Shepherd in Tannhäuser, and covering Lisette in La Rondine and Laura Brown in The Hours. Maureen also performed with The American Pops Orchestra at the Atlantic Council's Distinguished Leadership Awards honoring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
During the 2022-2023 season, Ms. McKay created the role of Laila in the world premiere of A Thousand Splendid Suns at Seattle Opera, based on the critically acclaimed novel. She also joined The Metropolitan Opera to sing the Second Niece in Peter Grimes and covered Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Adina in L’elisir d’amore. Her many assignments with the Metropolitan Opera in the prior season included singing Echo in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and covering the leading roles of Pamina in The Magic Flute, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress. Other recent highlights include multiple collaborations with Maestro Fabio Luisi and the Dallas Symphony for Mahler’s 4th Symphony performed in New York City, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at Bravo!Vail. She was also seen in an appearance on the PBS Television series One Voice: The Songs We Share.
After making her much-anticipated Metropolitan Opera debut as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel in the 17/18 season, Ms. McKay returned the following season as Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica. Her other recent notable engagements include her debut with Lincoln Center for their Mostly Mozart Festival as Pamina in Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed production of Die Zauberflöte, her mainstage debut with Seattle Opera in her role debut as Léïla in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, appearances with San Diego Opera as Nannetta in Falstaff and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Opera Colorado as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Despina in Così fan tutte, Virginia Opera as Rose in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in returns to Gran Teatre del Liceu and Komische Oper Berlin, as well as The Chekhov International Theatre Festival at The Bolshoi Theatre in the production where she originated the role in 2012 with Barrie Kosky and "1927".
As a previous member of the ensemble at the Komische Oper Berlin, McKay sang leading roles in the premieres of several new productions that include Blanche in Dialogues des carmélites, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Marzelline in Fidelio. Also with the company, she sang Mozart’s Requiem in performances conducted by music director, Henrik Nánási, as well as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Norina in Don Pasquale, and Musetta in La bohème. She returned as a guest to reprise the role of Elisa in a concert performance of Il re pastore.
Among her other previous engagements are Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera Philadelphia, Portland Opera, and Tulsa Opera, Nannetta in Falstaff with the Saito Kinen Festival, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Gran Teatre del Liceu, Washington National Opera, Edinburgh International Festival, Portland Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Opera Colorado, Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress with Portland Opera, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Cleveland, a return to the Opera Company of Philadelphia for Eurydice in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Lightfoot McLendon in Cold Sassy Tree and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with The Atlanta Opera, Lilla in Una cosa rara and Elisa in Il re pastore with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with New Orleans Opera, Despina in Così fan tutte, and Caroline Gaines in Richard Danielpour's Margaret Garner with New York City Opera, Opera Saratoga in her debut as Zémire in Zémire et Azor, Musetta in La bohème with Opera Omaha, Norina in Don Pasquale with Anchorage Opera, Lisa in La sonnambula with Washington Concert Opera, and Laurey in Oklahoma! with Central City Opera. She joined Seiji Ozawa for the Sandmännchen and Taumännchen in Hänsel und Gretel in his Ongaku-juku Opera Project throughout Japan and made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte conducted by Leonard Slatkin at the Hollywood Bowl.
The soprano’s concert performances include Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with The Cleveland Orchestra, Schmidt’s Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, The Danish National Symphony Orchestra for performances of Händel's Messiah and the Choir and Orchestra of Teatro Carlo Felice in Génova for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, both under the baton of Fabio Luisi, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic for Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard, Mozart’s Requiem and Debussy’s La demoiselle élue with the Utah Symphony, a program of Viennese music by Lehár and Johann Strauss with the Saint Louis Symphony, Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and Utah Symphony, Grieg’s Peer Gynt with the Oregon Symphony and Louis Andriessen’s The New Math(s) with the Seattle Chamber Players. With Seattle’s Music of Remembrance, she premiered Lori Laitman’s song cycle I Never Saw Another Butterfly and sang Aninku in Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Hans Krasa’s Brundibár; a recording including both Brundibár and Laitman’s song cycle is available on the Naxos label. Ms. McKay joined Judith Clurman for The Sound of Music 50th Anniversary Festival at the Mozarteum in Salzburg to perform a program of Rogers and Hammerstein classics.
Ms. McKay is a former member of Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program and was a Filene Young Artist with Wolf Trap Opera Company, where she sang Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Ismene in Telemann’s Orpheus, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. She earned her Bachelor of Music at Columbus State University in Georgia (summa cum laude) and her Master of Music at The Ohio State University.
