Margaret Gawrysiak holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Western Illinois University, and is a graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Wolf Trap Opera and the young artist programs of Seattle Opera and The Glimmerglass Festival.
During the 2023-2024 season, she will sing Marcellina in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro with New Orleans Opera, Verdi’s Requiem with the Madison Symphony and appear in concert with Opera Edwardsville. Last season’s engagements included her 11th hour debut at the Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Auntie in Peter Grimes, the Marquise de Berkenfield in Minnesota Opera’s production of La fille du régiment, and an appearance with Madison Opera for Marcellina.
During the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Gawrysiak returned to her home company of Seattle Opera for performances of Marcellina, joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera for the first time, covering Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin, bowed with the Boise Philharmonic for Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 130 and appeared as a soloist in Madison Opera’s popular annual Opera in the Park concert.
Notable operatic engagements for Margaret Gawrysiak include multiple appearances with Seattle Opera as Marcellina, The Older Woman in Flight, Vera Boronel in The Consul, Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin, and Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia; the Old Lady in Candide with The Knights at Tanglewood Music Festival and the Ravinia Festival; Mistress Hibbons in The Scarlet Letter (world premiere) and Marcellina with Opera Colorado; Madame Larina with Atlanta Opera; the Mother and the Witch in Hansel & Gretel, Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld, and Emma Jones in Street Scene with Virginia Opera; Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance and Marcellina with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; the Marquise in La fille du régiment with Arizona Opera; Mrs. De Rocher in Dead Man Walking with Dayton Opera; Ježibaba in Rusalka with North Carolina Opera; Frugola in Il tabarro with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica with Crested Butte Music Festival; and Dame Quickly in Falstaff, Baba the Turk and Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress, Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, and La Mère d’Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann with Wolf Trap Opera.
On the concert stage, she has performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood under Maestro Lorin Maazel and also with the Seattle Symphony, Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel with the Seattle Symphony, Stravinsky’s Les noces with the New York City Ballet, Dessau’s Haggadah shel Pesach with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Mozart’s Requiem and Verdi’s Requiem with the Springfield Symphony, and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.
Margaret Gawrysiak was a winner of the Sullivan Foundation Award and received second place in the Lotte Lenya Competition. She has received awards from the Jensen Foundation, Portland Opera’s Lieber Awards, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Awards.
