
Elisa Sutherland is a mezzo-soprano known for her detailed,
stylistic interpretations of both early and new music. This upcoming season,
she will perform with Philadelphia’s The Crossing, New York ensembles Ekmeles,
TENET Vocal Artists, Clarion Choir and New Chamber Ballet, Roomful of Teeth,
Cleveland’s Apollo’s Fire, Miami’s Seraphic Fire, and her own early and new
music sextet, Variant 6.
Elisa has performed as a soloist with TENET
Vocal Artists, Apollo’s Fire, American Bach Soloists, Apollo Chorus of Chicago,
and Quicksilver Baroque, singing Bach’s Mass in b minor, Handel’s Messiah, and
Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri. In the realm of contemporary music, she has
premiered works for voice and chamber orchestra for university and professional
ensembles. Elisa has a special love for art song, and has sung with LyricFest,
Philadelphia’s premiere art song concert series, and the Brooklyn Art Song
Society.
In addition to winning the Philadelphia District
of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 2015, Elisa is the 2014 winner of the
Lynne Harvey Cooper Award, and was the first-place winner of the inaugural
Handel Aria Competition at the Madison Early Music Festival in 2013. Recent
opera roles include Hera in Chris Cerrone’s All Wounds Bleed, Ensemble in
Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta with the Prototype Festival, Dido in Dido and
Aeneas, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Meg in Little Women, Ottavia in
L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Nancy in Albert Herring. Elisa is also
remembered for her Blazing Saddles – Madeline Kahn impression in a production
of Die Fledermaus.
Elisa graduated from Northwestern University
with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing, a Bachelor of Music in Vocal
Performance, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. She lives in
Brooklyn.