Marcy Stonikas

A graduate of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, soprano Marcy Stonikas is a recipient of the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshanna Foundation, as well as a winner of the George London Foundation Vocal Competition and First Prize Winner in the Wagner Division of the Gerda Lissner Foundational Vocal Competition. She is an alumna of the Young Artist Program at Seattle Opera, where she has since returned many times as a principal guest artist.

This season, Ms. Stonikas returns to the Metropolitan Opera, making her company stage debut as A Convict in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and sings Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. During the 2023-2024 season, she will make company debuts with Opera Colorado, as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, as Gerhilde (also covering Sieglinde) in Die Walküre.

Last season, Ms. Stonikas joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover the title role in their production of Turandot. During the 2020-2021 COVID-19 affected season, the soprano’s engagements included Leonore in Fidelio with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (cancelled), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Kalamazoo Symphony (cancelled), a gala concert with Berkshire Opera Festival (cancelled), Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana with Seattle Opera (cancelled), and a recital with Seattle Opera as part of the company’s autumn digital offerings.

Notable operatic engagements include multiple appearances with Seattle Opera as the title roles in Turandot, Fidelio, and Ariadne auf Naxos, Miss Jessel in Turn of the Screw, Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel, Magda Sorel in The Consul, and the High Priestess in Aida; Chrysothemis in Elektra with Minnesota Opera; Senta in Der Fliegende Hölländer with Cincinnati Opera; further performances of Turandot with Atlanta Opera, Opera Naples, and Cincinnati Opera, with covers of the role at the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago; Leonore in Fidelio with Volksoper Vienna and Princeton Festival; Third Norn in Götterdämmerung and Gerhilde in Die Walküre for her debut with Washington National Opera; her role and house debut in the title role in Salome with Utah Opera; Ariadne with Berkshire Opera Festival; Tosca with Arizona Opera and Opera Santa Barbara; Gertrude with San Diego Opera; and multiple performances with Wolf Trap Opera as Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Rosaura in Wolf-Ferrari’s rarely staged Le donne cuirasse, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, which she also performed with Opera Santa Barbara. Miss Stonikas also had the unique opportunity to perform the roles of Irene and Mary in the American premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera with Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in Chicago.

Orchestral highlights include performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with San Antonio Symphony and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the South Dakota Symphony; and she sang a blumenmädchen in Parsifal with the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez.