Biography

Hailed by the New York Times for her "clear, pealing voice" (Scarlatti's Arianna-Musica Nuova) and by Opera News for her “best all-around performance” (Handel’s Ariodante-Princeton Festival), soprano Marcy Richardson is a true stage animal with a passion for baroque, sophisticated musical theater, and contemporary music. 

Based in New York City, she recently made her Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall singing Mozart and Kurt Weill in a benefit concert for Best Buddies New York (Elaine Kwon and Friends), sang Handel's Messiah in Galway, Ireland, Scarlatti's Arianna with Musica Nuova at Le Pouisson Rouge in New York, and created the role of Fiordiligi in the premiere of Jonathan Dawe's Cosi Faran Tutti at the Italian Academy at Columbia University, as well as the role of Ani King George in the premiere of Gordon Beeferman and Charlotte Jackson's The Enchanted Organ, a burlesque opera that satirizes the porn industry.

A champion of new music, she was featured in NYFOS Next: Joseph Thalken and Friends with the New York Festival of Song, premiered John Eaton’s microtonal song cycle The Greeks: Ancient to Modern in the American Composer’s Alliance Summer Festival at Symphony Space in New York, Daniel Felsenfeld's Raw Footage at Brown University with the Jessold Consort and and with OPERAtion Brooklyn as part of the Brooklyn Beat Festival with Opera on Tap and American Opera Projects, Sven-David Sandström's High Mass as a soprano soloist with VocalEssence in Minneapolis under Philip Brunelle, performed Five Eliot Landscapes (Thomas Adés) and Bonsai Journal (Mohammed Fairouz) with the Mimesis Ensemble, the Watchman/Jazz Singer in John Eaton's Antigone with Aguavá New Music Ensemble at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, George Benjamin's A Mind of Winter with the Orlando Philharmonic, and Webern's Op. 18 with the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, where she was a member of the Contemporary Music Festival Academy under Pierre Boulez.

Originally from Grosse Pointe, MI and a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Ms. Richardson’s other stage credits include her Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Hall as the soprano soloist in the Faure Requiem and Mozart Vesparae solennes de Confessore with MidAmerica Productions, Diana in La Calisto with Vertical Player Repertory, Dalinda in Handel's Ariodante with the Princeton Festival, Monica in The Medium with St. Petersburg Opera, Kurt Weill’s Berlin to Broadway with Opera Columbus, From Paris to Berlin to New York (Gala Concert) with Toledo Opera, Kurt Weill Uncovered: A Cabaret Chronology, Poulenc's La Courte Paille, and Seconda Donna Handel Arias (live concert and recording session) with OperaMission, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Mrs. Hayes in Susannah with Orlando Opera, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro and Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore with Baltimore Opera, Emmaline in Purcell’s King Arthur with the Bloomington Early Music Festival, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Vivente, and Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia, Lucy in The Telephone, and Poussette in Manon at Indiana University. In concert, she has performed as a soloist in the Bach Magnificat with Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, Exsultate, Jubilate with Lyrique-en-Mer in Belle-Isle, France, Holiday Pops with the Princeton Symphony, Handel's Solomon with the Lafayette Bach Chorale Singers, Handel's Israel in Egypt with the Carmel Bach Festival, the Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer and the Pergolesi Stabat Mater at the Palm Beach Atlantic University Chapel, Die Schöpfung and Carl Heinrich Graun's Der Tod Jesu at Indiana University, and 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.

No stranger to musical theater, Ms. Richardson got her start in dance and theater and has also appeared as Rosie in Cabaret, Lili Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate, Cinderella in Into the Woods, Dream Laurey in Oklahoma!, tribe member in Hair, Leonide in Triumph of Love, principal in the Cole Porter Review Let’s Fall in Love, Angel City 4 in City of Angels, and featured dancer/ensemble in On the Town, Will Rogers Follies, and Once on this Island, to name a few.