About

American mezzo Kaarin Cecilia Phelps relocated to Paris, France in early 2022. In the time since, she has made her European concert debut singing the mezzo solo in the Duruflé Requiem with the American Cathedral in Paris. She was awarded first place in Concours d'Honneur des Maîtres du Chant and a special prize for her programme in the Councours d'Excellence-MDC. This summer, Kaarin makes her operatic debut in France with Festival Lyrique de Samoëns in an equally important role debut: Donna Elvira.

Recently completing a year as a Resident Artist with Opera in the Heights, Kaarin took on multiple roles and community outreach performances. In the fall of 2020, she starred in "Seven Spells," written for Ms. Phelps by Donia Jarrar for the Decameron Opera Coalition. This daring update of Boccaccio's Decameron, was a collaboration of nine U.S. Opera Companies. In the winter and spring, she sang the roles of Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro in concert at Houston's White Oak Music Hall. Phelps also performed the mezzo solos in Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle at Mandell Park in Houston, Texas in late 2020. The 21/22 season would have included multiple performances of the alto solos in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, all of which were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Kaarin made return to the Houston Masterworks Chorus to perform Beethoven's Mass in C and also returned to OH! to sing Ines and cover Azucena in Il Trovatore.

Ms. Phelps has excelled in roles such as Augusta Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Clarissa in The Love for Three Oranges, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Carlotta Vance in William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight. In her time at the Moores Opera Center, Ms. Phelps also performed Clarissa in Prokofiev ́s The Love for Three Oranges, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri and Lady Sneerwell in the premiere of Robert Nelson’s The School for Scandal. In early 2020, she took on the roles of the Old Woman/Cake Shopper in the professional debut of Yeltsin in Texas! with Opera in the Heights and Armelinde in Pauline Viardot's rarely performed Cendrillon with Operativo Houston (cancelled due to Covid-19)

Kaarin was featured in in the 2015 Musica e Musica Festival in Mercatello sul Metauro, Italy, where she sang concerts and scenes as Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Maddelena in Rigoletto, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. Not long after, Kaarin joined Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre as Suzuki (cover) in Madama Butterfly and Phobia in Seymour Barab's La Pizza con Funghi. That same season, she joined Hartford Opera Theatre, as Betty Parris in The Crucible and in the American premiere of Kevin Malone's Mysterious 44, which was performed in the historic Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut.

Experienced in concert works as well, Kaarin has appeared as a soloist in Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen, Haydn's Paukenmesse and the Mozart Requiem. She has on various occasions been a soloist in Handel's Messiah. In a recent recital, Ms. Phelps performed Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and Rossini’s rarely heard cantata, Giovanna d’Arco to great acclaim.

Having had much success in the national competition circuit, Kaarin was the first place winner of the San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Young Artist Competition and Opera Connecticut's American Opera Idol Competition. She placed third in the Ruth Burr Vocal Competition with the Houston Tuesday Musical Club in 2018 and has been a finalist in American Opera Idol Competition three times, taking home the Amy Jane and James Cohen Artist Encouragement Award in 2017, (third place) and the Lynne Strowe Piccolo Award in 2018 (second place). She has received awards from both Opera Theatre of Connecticut's Amici Competition and the Madame Rose Palmai Tenser Competition with Mobile Opera and was a finalist in the Kristin Lewis Foundation Scholarship Competition. Singing selections from Alcina and Semele, Kaarin was awarded first place in the Moores School of Music Concerto Competition and performed with the Moores Chamber Orchestra. Kaarin Cecilia Phelps has Master's degree from the University of Houston and holds a Bachelor's from The Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut.