Anna Laurenzo
A passionate interpreter of art song, Ms. Laurenzo joined the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago as their Vocal Chamber Music Fellow for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. Through this fellowship, Ms. Laurenzo developed a relationship with CAIC, performing several solo recitals and in the Fall Festival concerts with the organization. In 2022, she completed her time as a Fellow by performing a solo recital for the Spring Lieder Lounge with her longtime collaborator Shannon McGinnis.
In the spring of 2020, Ms. Laurenzo made her Off-Broadway debut covering the role of Mrs. Van Buren and singing in the ensemble of the world premiere of Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage (later postponed due to COVID-19). Additional recent operatic engagements include a role and company debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte with the Glacier Symphony followed by Dorabella with the Metropolitan Opera Guild and her Fall 2019 return to Chicago Opera Theater, performing the role of Meg Weathers in the Chicago premiere of Everest.
The 2018-19 season saw her join LOFTrecital forThe Rose and the Knife, a provocative staging of Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and the Center for Contemporary Opera for Joel Feigin’s Outcast at the Gate. Ms. Laurenzo also joined the roster of Chicago Opera Theater as the cover for the role of Brother in Stefan Weisman and David Cote’s critically acclaimed The Scarlet Ibis in the work’s Chicago premiere and the spring of 2019, Ms. Laurenzo made her Carnegie Hall debut under the auspices of MidAmerica Productions as the Mezzo Soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Haydn’s Mariazeller Mass. Ms. Laurenzo made her initial appearances within the New York City classical performance scene in the autumn of 2017. She was heard in performances with New York Theatre Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and the American Opera Society.
Within the standard operatic repertoire, Ms. Laurenzo has performed Mercédès in Carmen and covered Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, both with Fort Worth Opera. She has also been heard and seen as Pedrillo in a rare mounting of Telemann’s Don Quichotte, Farnace in Mozart’s adventurous early work Mitridate, re di Ponto, Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Ida in Die Fledermaus, Emma Jones in Street Scene, and Paquette in Candide.
Noted for her performance of contemporary American works, Ms. Laurenzo is a veteran of multiple world premiere productions. Her collaborations with composers have included work with Carlisle Floyd, Jeff Myers, Scott Wheeler, David T. Little, and Libby Larsen. During her recent two-season residency with Fort Worth Opera as a Lesley Apprentice Artist, Ms. Laurenzo participated in the company’s new works initiative Frontiers as well as workshops of Libby Larsen’s A Wrinkle in Time and David T. Little’s JFK. She went on to cover the role of Jackie Kennedy in the Fort Worth Opera world premiere production of JFK and also performed in the company’s 2016 and 2017 festival seasons as GPS in Patrick Soluri’s Embedded, the Undertaker in Jeff Myers’ Buried Alive, and Alycia Simpson in Matthew Peterson’s Voir Dire.
Ms. Laurenzo has been recognized on the vocal competition circuit, most recently winning the 2021 Artist Presentation Society Competition, and winning Second Prize in the 2021 Schubert Club Competition. She also has recently won the New York district of the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2017, she was the second-place winner for the Fielder Grant and in 2016, she won an encouragement award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, was honored as a finalist for the American Prize, and competed as a semi-finalist in the Opera Birmingham competition.