American mezzo-soprano Maire Therese Carmack is the winner of the Third Prize at Operalia 2022 and has been praised by Opera News for her “deep mezzo and vibrant metallic timbre” and for “taking focus by her very presence.”
The 2022/2023 season marks an exciting European debut for Ms. Carmack with Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she opens the season in the title role of Carmen on the Parkdeck. During her year-long tenure with the company, Ms. Carmack can be seen in Rigoletto (Giovanna/Maddalena), Don Quichotte (Dulcinée), Die Zauberflöte (Dritte Dame), Les contes d’Hoffmann (La Voix), Lucia di Lammermoor (Alisa), Manon Lescaut (Singer), Salome (The Page), Antikrist (Der Missmut), and in the world premiere of Arne Gieshoff’s Bär*in. This season also marks debuts with Santa Fe Opera as Mercédès in Carmen and as a soloist in the world premiere of David Henry Hwang and Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly 蝴蝶君, and with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as the mezzo soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony under the baton of Maestro Manfred Honeck. In early 2023, Ms. Carmack will make her Carnegie Hall debut as a participant in Renée Fleming’s SongStudio and her Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra debut as the alto soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244.
Ms. Carmack is an alum of the Palm Beach Opera Bailey Apprentice Artist Program, The Glimmerglass Festival Young Artists Program, the Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist Program, and Si parla, si canta. Her role and cover credits include Olga and Larina in Eugene Onegin, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Juno in Semele, the Witch/Mother Hänsel und Gretel, Prinz Orlofski in Die Fledermaus, Empress Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Marquise of Berkenfield in La fille du régiment, Mercédès in Carmen, La Zelatrice in Suor Angelica, Flora in La traviata, Berta in The Barber of Seville, Baroness Nica in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, Margaret Johnson in Light in the Piazza, and Celeste in Songbird.
A champion of classic repertoire and new works, Ms. Carmack performed the role of Prima Donna in the world premiere of Philip Blackburn’s multimedia hyper-opera The Sun Palace, which became a 60-minute Indie film that premiered at New York’s Anthology Film Archives. In a collaboration with Parisian composer Jean Luc Lenoir, she presented the American premiere of “Songs of the Hebrides”: a collection of Hebridean Gaelic waulking songs arranged for voice and ensemble.
In competition, Ms. Carmack won the Minnesota District of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, followed by an encouragement award in the Upper Midwest Region (2022). She is a winner of the Björn Eklund Scholarship from The Opera Foundation (2022), winner of the Glenn and Ginger Flournoy Award in the Mary J. Smith Singer of the Year Competition (2022), winner of the Florida District of the Laffont Competition followed by third place in the Gulf Coast Region (2020), first place winner of the Rochester International Voice Competition (2019), encouragement award winner in the Gerda Lissner Foundation Lieder/Song Competition (2019), a finalist in the Opera Index Vocal Competition (2019), a semi-finalist in the Lotte Lenya Competition (2018), and a second place winner of the Friends of Eastman Opera Aria Competition (2018). Ms. Carmack holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and Music from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, summa cum laude (2016) and a Master of Music in Voice Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, with honors (2018).
