Kara Morgan

to projects that broaden minds and inspire others. Her dedication to studying the art, languages, and characters of opera has been showcased on stages across the United States. Career highlights include apprenticeships with Sarasota Opera and Santa Fe Opera; mainstage credits with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Pacific Opera Project, and An Opera Theatre; and recognition from the Schubert Club and Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competitions.

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Kara returned to Sarasota Opera as a Resident Artist in the 2021-22 season as pandemic restrictions began to ease. During this residency, she sang the role of Spirit in the Form of Mercury and sang one performance as the title role in Purcell's Dido & Æneas; she was also heard in one performance as Marianna in Rossini's one-act farce, Il signor Bruschino. In October 2021, Kara made her West Coast and company debut with Pacific Opera Project as Hansel in Hansel & Gretel. The following April, she was home in Minneapolis portraying the title role in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia with An Opera Theatre.

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Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kara was a Young Artist with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, singing the roles of Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Mercédès in Carmen with the company. In the summer of 2019, Kara covered Dorabella in Mill City Summer Opera's July production of Così staged in the Mill City Museum ruins. She also sang with Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, MN covering the the title role of Offenbach's La belle Hélène, before returning to Fargo Moorhead Opera to make her mainstage and role debut as Hansel in October of that year. In early 2020, Kara joined Sarasota Opera for their Winter Festival, most notably as part of the ensemble in Catalani's La Wally; it was only the third production of the opera in the United States.

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Kara earned her Bachelor of Music Degree from Drake University and her Masters in Voice Performance at the New England Conservatory. As a student, she was heard as Mrs. Soames (Rorem's Our Town), Katisha (The Mikado), Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des Carmélites), Grimgerde (Die Walküre), and Ottone (Agrippina). Currently, Kara is a member of the opera studio at Yale University studying with Adriana Zabala. In Fall 2022 opera scenes, she sang Cherubino in Act 1 of Le nozze di Figaro and Charlotte in Act 3 of Werther.

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A lover of art song, Kara enjoys programming lesser-heard and contemporary works. Past recitals included performances of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen by Mahler; Cinco canciones negras by Montsalvatge; Trois chansons de Bilitis by Debussy; and excerpts by Hahn, Bach, Heggie, Vivaldi, and Kurt Weill, among others. In Summer 2022, Kara partnered with longtime collaborator Carson Rose Schneider and Minnesota nonprofit organization, OOPS MN (Opera-Oriented Project Sponsorships), to create Ladies, Lyrics, & Lagers: a recital that was taken on tour to three popular Twin Cities breweries with the purpose of promoting song sets by two living women composers based in Minnesota, Linda Tutas Haugen and Edie Hill, and bringing well-sung art to a more relaxed, casual setting. Most recently at Yale, Kara paired selections from Lili Boulanger's Clairières dans le ciel transposed for mezzo soprano with Edie Hill's The Giver of Stars: Six Poems of Amy Lowell, in its Connecticut debut.

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Kara also enjoys collaboration in choral and orchestral works, appearing as a soloist with the Oratorio Society of Minnesota, the Bach Roots Festival, the CBA Orchestra, the Minnesota Saints Chorale & Orchestra, the Drake Choir, and singing Alcibiades and Phaedrus in an unconducted performance of Erik Satie's Socrate with the New England Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in Boston's historic Jordan Hall.

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Closing out her first year at Yale, Kara will reprise the role of Lucretia in February 2023 and debut the role of Isolier in Rossini's medieval comedy, Le comte Ory in May. In April, Kara was named one of three winners of the 2023 Woolsey Concerto Competition. She will enjoy the privilege of performing Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Yale Philharmonia in their 2023/24 season, exact concert date TBA.