Erin Wagner

“absolute mastery”

– OPERANEWS

Mezzo-soprano, Erin Wagner, is establishing herself an artist of “versatility and musical curiosity” (Opera News).

Erin is a recent alumna of The Houston Grand Opera Butler Studio where she performed in the company’s productions of The Wreckers (Jack), Salome (Page), Madama Butterfly (Kate Pinkerton), Parsifal (Blumenmädchen), The Sound of Music (Sister Margaretta), and Le nozze di Figaro (Barbarina, Cherubino study cover). While at HGO she was also heard in scenes as Béatrice (Béatrice et Bénédict), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Frau Reich (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor), and Larina (Eugene Onegin).

She joined Wolf Trap Opera as a 2024 Filene Artist to sing the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte and returned to Wolf Trap during the summer of 2025 to perform the roles of Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites and Mércèdes in Carmen. The 24/25 season marked debuts at The Metropolitan Opera in Die Frau ohne Schatten (Unborn Voice 3, Servant 2 cover), with Louisville Orchestra as Der Trommler in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, with Maryland Symphony in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, with Brooklyn Art Song Society premiering David Ludwig’s arrangements of Mélodies by Guillaume de Machaut, and with Brazos Valley Symphony in Bruckner’s Te Deum.

Erin is a winner of The Gerda Lissner Foundation Lieder Competition, Opera Index Competition, The George & Nora London Foundation Competition, Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Schwabacher Recital Debut Competition, and The Naumburg Foundation Vocal Competition as well as a recipient of The Richard F. Gold Career Grant from The Shoshana Foundation.

Seeking to perform music which represents modern and diverse perspectives, she has been heard in recital at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, San Francisco Opera, and The Kaufmann Center. She made her Morgan Library recital debut with Young Concert Artists performing an arrangement for chamber ensemble of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder by Shawn Chang and a staged rendition of Argento’s From the Diary of Virginia Woolf in her recital program entitled To Come Back. Erin and Shawn made their Carnegie Hall debuts for The Naumburg Foundation in a recital entitled But How Things Change. The program explored the collective and individual experiences brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic with music by Edie Hill, Fauré, Ravel, Errollyn Wallen, Shawn Chang, and Mahler. For this recital Erin commissioned Shawn to set text from her father’s childhood that depicted his life as a mischievous child living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a rare and debilitating bone disorder. Their next recital for The Naumburg Foundation, Touching the Living Garden, included a commission by Errollyn Wallen entitled JOY, a setting of Jorge Luis Borges by Shawn, two songs by Ukrainian composer Stefania Turkewich, and excerpts from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Messiaen’s Harawi; the recital centers around the duality and coexistence of joy and hardship. As a winner of the Schwabacher Recital Debut Auditions, Erin consequently made her recital debut at San Francisco Opera in 2023 in a recital program called Everything Must Change: a sequel to her previous recital program that discusses the ways society has failed to progress but affirms the opportunity we have collectively to make change. She shared the music of Schubert, Stefania Turkewich, Viktor Ullmann, Shawn Chang, Radiohead, and Benard Ighner alongside Shawn Chang at the piano.

She returned to the Renée Fleming Artist Fellowship at Aspen Music Festival where she performed the role of Idamante under the baton of Robert Spano in Francesca Zambello’s production of Idomeneo featuring Matthew Polenzani in the title role. She also performed orchestrated Lieder of Schubert with Nicholas McGegan and in scenes from Dialogues des Carmélites (Blanche) and Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist). She is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program where she reprised the role of Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, performed in a scene from Golijov’s Ainadamar, sang in Craig Terry’s A Celebration of American Song, and performed scenes from Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist) and Carmen (Mercédès) in the Grand Finale Concert at the San Francisco Opera House. She has performed with Steve Blier’s New York Festival of Song in Le Tour de France, All Together Now, and Next 9 Under 34.

Erin is a graduate of The Juilliard School and The Manhattan School of Music and is an alumna of Renée Fleming’s SongStudio, The Chautauqua Institution, SongFest’s Colburn Fellowship, and Matthew Rose’s Scuola di Bel Canto.

In her spare time Erin loves spending time with her family and friends, visiting art museums (some of her favorites have been The Menil Collection in Houston, The Leopold Museum in Vienna, The Rubell Museum in DC, and of course The MoMA in NYC), and naturally rewatching The Twilight Saga.

~

YCA represents mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner for worldwide engagements. Please contact us for more information.