Marcy Richardson, Soprano

For Marcy's full schedule, click HERE

Described by Theater Mania as a performer who is "worth the price of admission alone" (Nutcracker Rouge-Company XIV), and by Opera News as giving the “best all-around performance” (Handel's Ariodante - The Princeton Festival), soprano Marcy Richardson has brought the art of marrying aerial arts, pole dancing, and burlesque with live classical singing to opera and entertainment companies worldwide. Recent performaces include “My Favorite Things” at the Windmill Soho in London, Santa’s Secret with Voss Events (NYC), Lust Caution at Bushwick’s Red Pavilion with Astarte Creative, and Varietease at Duane Park NYC. Her upcoming performances include SNCTM Society’s Masquerade Ball in New York, Opus and Love Affair with Fabrika Philly, and the role of Papagena in The Magic Flute with Opera Columbus. On the NYC nightlife scene, she has performed with Company XIV, the Bartschland Follies and New York, New York with Susanne Bartsch at the Mckittrick Hotel, Sony Hall, House of X and The Public, Blunderland at House of Yes, Speakeasy Times Square at Bond 45, The Great Gatsby Party at Capitale the People’s Ball at Brooklyn Public Library, The Blind Man’s Ball at The Weylin with Matte Projects, Green Fairy at The Red Room, Schtick-a-pole-in-it at DROM, Frizqué NJ, the Hot Jazz Festival with Shanghai Mermaid at DROM, Sid Gold’s Request Room, Zavo NYC, Secret Loft NYC, Cirque Central Entertainment, Spiegelworld at St. Anne’s Warehouse, Dixon Place, Le Poisson Rouge, The Slipper Room, Lavo NYC, and many more.

Equally at home on the operatic and concert stage, she has performed as a soloist in many of New York's most acclaimed concert halls, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. She took home the 2018 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Female Performance in an opera for her acrobatic aerial and vocal portrayal of Amour in Gluck's Orphée with Against the Grain Theater, a co-production with Opera Columbus. She will be joining Opera Columbus once again in the role of Papagena in their newest production of The Magic Flute in April 2024.

She appeared as “Star” in the movie Hustlers, and has filmed pole work for the HBO series Betty as well as featured burlesque background on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She is based in both London and New York when she is not on the road, and has a private pole and voice studio in Brooklyn for both live and virtual teaching and training.

Originally from Grosse Pointe, MI and a BM/MM graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Ms. Richardson’s classical music career highlights include soloist in Handel's Samson under Nicholas McGegan with American Classical Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina with Operamission, Diana and Giove as Diana (La Calisto) with Vertical Player Repertory, Dalinda (Ariodante) with the Princeton Festival, Monica (The Medium) with St. Petersburg Opera, Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance) and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), with Orlando Opera, Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore) with Baltimore Opera, Handel's Messiah and Mozart's C Minor Mass, at Galway Cathedral in Ireland, and Exsultate, Jubilate with both the Princeton Symphony and Lyrique-en-Mer in Belle-Isle, France. As an apprentice artist, Ms. Richardson has trained and performed with Central City Opera, Baltimore Opera, Orlando Opera, and Brevard Music Center. 

Ms. Richardson has won various awards and grants from the Kurt Weill Foundation, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Heinz Rehfuss Singing Actor Awards, Metropolitan Opera National Council, Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation, Heida Hermanns International Voice Competition, and Opera Birmingham’s Cassell Stewart Vocal Competition.

A champion of new music, she has sung many roles in contemporary opera and oratorio, including So Yeon in John Eaton's microtonal opera, Re-Routed, with the Pocket Opera Players at Symphony Space in NYC, the highest soprano soloist in Sven David Sandström’s High Mass with VocalEssence in Minneapolis under Philip Brunelle, Fiordiligi in the premiere of Jonathan Dawe's Cosi Faran Tutti at Columbia University’s Italian Arts Center, and the title role in a staged reading of Louis Karchin's Jane Eyre with Center for Contemporary Opera. Ms. Richardson has also been a featured performer with the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS Next,) American Composer’s Alliance Summer Festival, Opera on Tap, American Opera Projects, and the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland as a member of the Contemporary Music Festival Academy under Pierre Boulez.