Colleen Daly

Bio

Colleen Daly has been hailed as a “dramatically powerful” (The Washington Post) young singer. Miss Daly’s most recent performances include Musetta in La Bohème with Annapolis Opera, Lyric Opera of Baltimore and Des Moines Metro Opera; Violetta in Opera Delaware’s production of La traviata, which she also covered at New York City Opera; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Intermountain Opera; Micaëla in both La Tragédie de Carmen with Syracuse Opera and in Carmenwith Baltimore Concert Opera; the Countess in Annapolis Opera’s production of Le nozze di Figaro; and the title role of Thaïs at Opera Company of Middlebury. In the winter of 2016, Ms Daly returned to one of her signature roles, Micaëla in the Maryland Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Carmen, and was later presented in her role debut as Fidelia in Puccini’s masterpiece Edgar with the Baltimore Concert Opera.

Ms. Daly’s work as a concert and recital soloist has been widely recognized in performing such works as the Mozart, Brahms, Fauré, and Rutter Requiem Masses, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Händel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Lord Nelson Mass, and Missa Solemnis, Poulenc’s Gloria, Mozart’s Davide Penitente, and Stravinsky’s Les Noces. Colleen has appeared with the Master Chorale of Washington in her Kennedy Center debut, Washington Concert Opera, the Washington Chorus, the Cathedral Choral Society in her National Cathedral debut, the Post-Classical Ensemble, the New Dominion Chorale, the Maryland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Händel Society of Dartmouth, and the Columbus Symphony, among others. The 2015 season was marked by her professional recital debut; Ms. Daly presented a program of art song inspired by works in the permanent collection at the Phillips Collection, and reprised a portion of her program at the Kennedy Center, which was streamed live worldwide. Ms. Daly made her international concert debut with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as Madeline in Philip Glass’ setting of The Fall of the House of Usher, before returning to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall as a soloist in the Washington Chorus’s presentation of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony. She appeared with the Bozeman Symphony in Verdi’s Requiem just before returning to Calgary as a soloist in their presentation of Mahler’s Symphony No. VIII. In 2017, she looks forward to her role debut as the title character in Floyd’s Susannah, Dvořák’s Te Deum for Washington’s Cathedral Choral Society, and Carmina Burana with the Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center, before making her Grant Park Music Festival debut as a soloist in Frank Martin’s In Terra Pax in Chicago. She will end the year in Boston for a world premiere of a new opera, Rev. 23, in which she plays the starring role of Persephone.

A native of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, Ms. Daly is frequently called upon to appear as a featured soloist at embassies and political events; to date, she has performed at the Italian, Austrian, Irish, Bulgarian, and Columbian embassies, and has performed for Vice President Biden, Maryland Governors Martin O’Malley and Larry Hogan, and Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Roberts.

Colleen Daly has been the recipient of awards from the Vocal Arts Society of Washington, D.C., the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Liederkranz Foundation, The Washington International Competition, and Annapolis Opera. Ms. Daly holds a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University, a Master’s degree from the Opera Studio at the University of Maryland in College Park, and an Artist Diploma from the Academy of Vocal Arts.