Laura Strickling

Grammy™ nominated soprano Laura Strickling was praised by The New York Times for her, “flexible voice, crystalline diction, and warm presence.” Celebrated for her work on the concert and recital stage, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, National Sawdust, Trinity Church on Wall Street, Washington National Cathedral, Tanglewood Music Festival, Ravinia Music Festival, the Opera America Center, Mexicoliederfest, Liederfest in Suzhou (China), and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.

A devoted recitalist, she curated The New Music Shelf Anthology of 20 contemporary art songs for soprano, serves on the Brooklyn Art Song Society’s New Music Advisory Board, and the Advisory Boards of the Cincinnati Song Initiative and Calliope’s Call. She has appeared with the Brooklyn Art Song Society Cincinnati Song Initiative, Chiarina Chamber Players, Lyric Fest of Philadelphia, Joy in Singing, Trinity Concerts at One, the American Liszt Society, Baltimore Lieder Weekend, the Half Moon Music Festival, Concerts on the Slope, Water Island Music Festival, Art Song at the Old Stone House, the Brooklyn New Music Collective, SongFusion, was a featured performer at the 2016 New Music Gathering, and presented a radio broadcast recital of American art songs on “Live from WFMT” in Chicago with pianist Daniel Schlosberg. Laura and pianist Liza Stepanova were Artists in Residence at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, where they presented a program of Granados songs and modern songs in Spanish, including the world premiere of Ciudades del Porvenir by Reinaldo Moya. She has presented guest artist recitals at the University of Georgia, Mercer University, College of William and Mary, New World School of the Arts, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame University of Maryland, Pittsburg State University, McDaniel College, and St. Mary’s College. A specialist in new music, she has collaborated with composers Libby Larsen, Tom Cipullo, James Matheson, Juliana Hall, John Musto, Reinaldo Moya, and Glen Roven. Her upcoming commissioning initiative – The 40@40 Project – will bring to life 40 songs by 40 composers.

Her concert soloist engagements include Messiah (Handel) with the Indianapolis Symphony and the Richmond Symphony, at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center with DCINY, and at the Kennedy Center with the Metropolitan Chorus, Gloria (Poulenc) with the Asheville Symphony, Mass in c minor (Mozart) with the Richmond Symphony, Cathedral Choral Society, and Berkshire Choral International, Stabat Mater (Dvorak) with Berkshire Choral International, Ein Deutsches Requiem (Brahms) with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee and Chorosynthesis, Luonnotar (Sibelius) and Les Illuminations (Britten) with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Barber) and Les Illuminations (Britten) with Mexicoliederfest, Gloria (Poulenc) with the Asheville Symphony, Ninth Symphony (Beethoven) and Carmina Burana (Orff) with Choralis, Requiem (Mozart), Credo Mass (Mozart), Dixit Dominus (Handel), Gloria (Vivaldi), Lord Nelson Mass (Haydn), and Mass in C (Beethoven). Her performance of Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Exsultate jubilate with the Cathedral Choral Society was broadcast by WETA, and her performance of Poulenc’s Gloria with the Asheville Symphony was broadcast by Blue Ridge Public Radio.

Laura Strickling created the role of Fanni Radnòti in the World Premiere of Tom Cipullo’s opera The Parting with Music of Remembrance. She is an alumna of the Berkshire Opera Company resident artist program, where Opera News praised her performance of the Dew Fairy in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, "Laura Strickling offered the creamy, clear, younger-sister-of-Eva-Pogner instrument ideal for singing the role over full orchestration." She appeared as Pamina in the Metropolitan Opera Guild's touring outreach production of The Magic Flute. Ms. Strickling’s operatic roles include Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Cleopatra (Julius Caesar), Mimi (La boheme), Dinorah (Dinorah), Elvira (L’Italiana in Algeri), Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), The Dew Fairy (Hansel and Gretel), and Micaëla (Carmen). She created the role of Muriel in the world premiere of Thomas Benjamin's The Alien Corn with the Peabody Opera Theater.

She received wide-spread critical acclaim in 2020 for her debut solo CD Confessions, “Strickling is a soprano of consummate artistry,” (Classical Singer Magazine)…”Her voice is full and lustrous and then bright and nimble,” (Schmopera)…” as well as for the Naxos Opera Classics recording of The Parting by Tom Cipullo, “…deeply expressive, secure voice. Her exposed highs are managed wonderfully, with notable beauty,” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Her recording of James Matheson’s Times Alone with Yarlung Records was hailed by MusicWeb International for, “…shapely, nuanced voicings and emotional urgency...a striking directness.” New Voices, the Billboard Classical Top-Ten best-selling CD including her recording of Glen Roven’s The Vineyard Songs with pianist Michael Brofman was credited by Opera News, “Laura Strickling’s lovely diction and warm, clear sound bring attractive immediacy to this cycle.” She can also be heard on New American Song @SongFest, performing Jake Heggie’s Edna St. Vincent Millay with pianist Dimitri Dover, and on The Garden: Songs and Vocal Chamber Music of Tom Cipullo, performing the landmark song cycle Of a Certain Age with pianist Liza Stepanova.

Ms. Strickling was a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2013 and 2014, a resident artist at the Steans Music Institute at Ravinia in 2012, a recipient of the Marc and Eva Stern Fellowship at SongFest in 2011 and 2012, and performed in The Song Continues…with Marilyn Horne – Weill Music Institute’s 2012 Professional Training Program at Carnegie Hall. She is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (M.M. in Voice), and Moody Bible Institute (B.M. in Sacred Music).

A Chicago native, Ms. Strickling is an avid traveler, having lived in Morocco, where she studied classical Arabic at the Arabic Language Institute of Fez, and Kabul, Afghanistan, where her husband was the founding chair of the Department of Law at the American University of Afghanistan. She currently makes her home in St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands.