Praised for her “lively, incisive soprano” by the New York Times, Emily Pogorelc is currently entering her fourth and final year at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Julia Faulkner. Following her academic year at the conservatory, Ms. Pogorelc will be joining the 2018-19 ensemble of the The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

In Ms Pogorelc’s 2017-18 season, she performs as soloist in Richard Hynson’s Evensong, celebrating Maestro Hynson’s 30th year as music director of the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee. Next, she returns to Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute in November to perform Strauss’s Mädchenblumen and Poulenc’s Fiançialles pour rire with pianist Reese Revak. In December, she makes her debut with the Madison Symphony Orchestra for their annual Christmas concert. Next, she sings a graduation recital at the Curtis Institute of Music with Danielle Orlando, which will include the works of Fanny Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, and Joaquin Turina. She debuts with the New Jersey Symphony in March, singing the soprano solo in Mozart’s Requiem, then closes the season with her Washington National Opera debut as Cunégonde in Francesca Zambello’s production of Candide. She also will participate in the Mozart Residency at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in June.

Emily is the recipient of The Ginette Theano Prize for Most Promising Talent, as well as being the youngest finalist of the first ever Glyndebourne Opera Cup. She was featured as part of the Sky Arts series, broadcast all over Europe and in the United States on Medici.

Recently, Pogorelc finished her second season as young artist at The Glimmerglass Festival. She starred in Handel’s Xerxes, where she “found a tragic nobility in Romilda and her elegant, poised vocal impersonation was an aural delight” (OperaCanada). In addition, Emily covered the role of Laurey in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! for the 2017 season as well as singing Johanna Barker in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Berenice in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro for the company in 2016.

Passionate about performing new works, with Opera Philadelphia, Pogorelc sang in the New York premiere of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird as Chan Parker, Charlie’s fourth and final wife. The performances were especially significant as it was the first opera performed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and broadcast on classical stations nationwide. In addition to Yardbird, Emily was a part of Opera Philadelphia’s second Double Exposure performance, singing the title role in David Hertzberg’s The Rose Elf. As a part of Opera Philadelphia’s composer-in-residence program, Emily performed in a live-streamed masterclass with Dawn Upshaw, singing an aria from the majorly successful new opera by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrick, Breaking The Waves.

During her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, Pogorelc performed as Lisette in Puccini’s La Rondine, Lucia in Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Le Feu in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Barbarina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Musetta in Puccini’s La bohéme, as well as appearing in numerous recitals. She was also a soloist for Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, traveling to perform at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Ludovic Morlot. She also was the 2015 Irving Ludwig Prize Winner, offering her an opportunity to sing with the local Philadelphia symphony, Landsdowne Symphony Orchestra.

This year, Pogorelc received first prize in The Carolyn Bailey and Dominick Argento Vocal Competition, a grant from the Gerda Lissner/Liederkranz Foundation’s Lieder/Art Song competition, an Emerging Artist Award from Opera Index. In the 2017 competition, she took second place in the Upper-Midwest Region of the Metropolitan National Opera Council Auditions. She has also won first place in numerous competitions, including Classical Singer Magazine Competition, The Schmidt Competition, The American Prize, and the Hal Leonard Art Song Competition and Wisconsin Conservatory of Music Art Song Festival. She is the 2014 Gold Award winner in the Classical Voice division at NFAA YoungArts and in June 2014, she was featured on National Public Radio’s, From the Top.

Ms. Pogorelc is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.