Margaret Gawrysiak holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Western Illinois University, and is a graduate of the Merola Opera Program, Wolf Trap Opera and the young artist programs of Seattle Opera and The Glimmerglass Festival.
Ms. Gawrysiak enjoys a varied 2026-2027 season, beginning with her return to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City for a signature role, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro. She also makes her return to Seattle Opera, her former home company, bowing as Miss Benson in a concert performance of Lakmé, and joins Cedar Rapids Opera in concert and as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
A regular at The Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Gawrysiak’s 2025-2026 season included performances as Esther Klayman in the The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and covers of the Marquise de Berkenfield in La fille du régiment, and Madame Larina in Eugene Onegin. She concluded the season with the premiere of Shawn Crouch’s Letters Home, performed with the New England Symphonic Ensemble and Mid-America Productions at Carnegie Hall.
For the 2024-2025 season, the mezzo-soprano made her debut with Los Angeles Opera, singing Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette. She also returned to the role of Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at Opera Omaha, sang Queen Aggravain in Central City Opera's production of Once Upon a Mattress, and joined the Metropolitan Opera to cover Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro.
Notable operatic engagements for Margaret Gawrysiak include her 11th hour debut at The Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Auntie in Peter Grimes; 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 and the Metropolitan Opera (cover); 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 Minnesota Opera and 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; Marcellina with New Orleans Opera and Madison Opera; 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, Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 130 with the Boise 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 Madison Symphony and 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.
