Hailed by the Boston Musical Intelligencer as “shining through with a strength and power that matched her character’s presence onstage”, Amal El-Shrafi is now an up and coming performer across the United States. This season, Ms. El-Shrafi made her principal artist debut as Nedda in I Pagliacci with Mobile Opera, sang as an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera in their completion of the Verdi Cycle and will return to Opera Company of Middlebury as an Apparition in their production of Verdi’s Macbeth. She also placed as an international semi-finalist in the pretigious Deborah Voigt/ Vero Beach Opera Vocal Competition this past March.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, she received her Masters of Music degree under the tutelage of baritone Michael Meraw. While there, she performed the roles of Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Moppet the Cat (Paul Bunyan), Susannah (Susannah), and Outreach Opera performances of Lauretta (Dr. Miracle) and Amy (Diver City) with the Community Partnerships Program.

In 2015, Amal placed in the top 5 and was awarded The Emergent Artist grant through Connecticut Concert Opera’s American Opera Idol Competition. She was also named a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions New England Regional Finalist, as well as in 2013, and a 2014 finalist for the Bay View Music Festival Aria Competition. She placed as a finalist for the “Looking for Lauretta” contest with Connecticut Concert Opera and in 2013, received Third Place in the Peter Elvins Voice Competition, as well as placing as a national semi-finalist in the Classical Singer Competition. Additionally, Amal received First Place in the International Performing Arts Institute Opera Superstar Competition in Germany in July 2013. While in Germany, Amal studied the roles of Mimi and Arabella.

A native of Randolph, Massachusetts, she received a B.M. in Music Education and a B.A. in Vocal Performance from the University of New Hampshire, studying voice under Dr. Jenni Cook. Roles with the Opera Workshop program included The Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), and Cunégonde (Candide). Amal was an integral part of the arts community in the seacoast area of New Hampshire, revisiting the title role in Dido and Aeneas with Portsmouth Pro Musica’s first operatic endeavor. Along with her solo engagements, Amal is an active member in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She made her Symphony Hall debut, singing the part of Ancilla in the St. John Passion in April 2011 under Maestro Masaaki Suzuki.

Other roles include the Female Chorus in Opera Brittenica’s production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte with the Bay View Music Festival in Michigan. Amal was also a Young Artist at the Opera Company of Middlebury, performing as a Handmaiden in Puccini’s Turandot. In Boston where she resides, Amal has sung with Boston Opera Collaborative, Longwood Opera, Opera on Tap, and has been a soloist with the Choral Arts Society of the South Shore, The Hanover Chorus, East Congregational Church in Milton and First Church Congregational in Malden.

Aside from performing, Amal works as an accompanist and runs an active voice and piano studio. If interested in taking lessons, please email her at [email protected].