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.
Upcoming and recent performances include a return to San Diego Opera as the title role in Strauss’s Salome, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer for her debut with Opera Colorado, and Strauss Four Last Songs and scenes from Ariadne auf Naxos in concert with conductor Steven White and Opera Roanoke.
During the 2022-2023 season, Ms. Stonikas returned to the Metropolitan Opera to make her company stage debut as A Convict while covering the leading role of Ekaterina in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. In concert, she returned to the role of Leonore in Fidelio with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.
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. Ms. 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.
