The New York Times calls mezzo-soprano Hannah Ludwig “best in show” and further exclaims “Her tone chocolaty and large, yet with focus and agility, she captured the integral aspect of bel canto…expression emerging from a long, intelligently shaped musical line.” In the 2020-21 season, she returns to Teatro Nuovo as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia in the first in-person opera production in New York City since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She sings the same role earlier in the season in a made-for-digital production with Opera Louisiane and is presented in “Songs from a Distance,” a recital featuring Schubert, Argento, Boyle, and Musto as well as a series of outdoor concerts by Opera Delaware and Baltimore Concert Opera. Among her performances next season are Handel’s Messiah with the Columbus Symphony—originally scheduled for this season—and her debut with Portland Opera as the District Attorney in Davis’ Central Park Five.

Her scheduled performances of Szymanowski’s Stabat mater with Gianandrea Noseda conducting the National Symphony Orchestra have been postponed due to COVID-19 and will be scheduled in a future season, as were a third Rossini role debut with Teatro Nuovo, Calbo in Maometto II and her international debut in a solo program of bel canto repertoire originally written for the castrato fact with the Bochumer Symphoniker.

Last season, she sang her first performances of Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena with Baltimore Concert Opera and returned to Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte in her company debut with Dallas Opera. Unfortunately, her debut with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde was also cancelled in the wake of COVID-19. Her other recent role debuts in the bel canto repertoire include Pippo in La gazza ladra and Isaura in Tancredi with Teatro Nuovo, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Annapolis Opera, and Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Philadelphia. On the concert stage, she sang her first performances of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with the Colorado Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem with the Columbus Symphony, both under the baton of Rossen Milanov, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Flint Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Ludwig is a 2018 graduate of the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts, at which she sang a host of roles that include Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri, Charlotte in Werther, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Fricka in Das Rheingold, Azucena in Il trovatore, Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and the Nurse in The Demon. With the Aspen Music Festival, she performed Ursule in Béatrice et Bénédict conducted by Johannes Debus and Sesto in La clemenza di Tito led by Maestro Jane Glover. Her other recent concert appearances include Handel’s Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as well as Mozart’s Requiem and Forrest’s Requiem for the Living with MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall.

She recently won second place in the 2018 Loren L Zachary Society for the Performing Arts Vocal Competition. She has received encouragement awards from the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Gulf Coast Region, and the Licia Albanese-Puccini International Vocal Competition. She is also a grant winner of the Giulio Gari Vocal competition.

Prior to attending the Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. Ludwig received her Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of the Pacific. She received further training from the Aspen Music Festival, Taos Opera Institute, Napa Music Festival, and Classical Lyric Arts in France.