Hailed as a “powerhouse” with “major vocal goods and a feisty personality to match,” young American soprano Kerriann Otano was a 2016 National Semi-Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a recent graduate of the Washington National Opera Young Artist Program. In the 2016-2017 season, Kerriann was thrilled to return to Fort Worth Opera Festival in her role debut as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen. Praised for her “generous soprano” by The Washington Post, this fall Ms. Otaño reprised the role of Contessa Almaviva in her debut at Opera Memphis in Le Nozze di Figaro, and she performed at WNO this season as Kitty Hart in Jake Heggie’s acclaimed Dead Man Walking. In 2017-18 she returns to the Washington National Opera for Candide, debuts the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Fellow Travelers in the role of Mary Johnson (cover), debuts the role of Senta in The Flying Dutchman with Opera San Jose, and she will also star in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied at the Houston Grand Opera.

This past spring, Washington National Opera presented Wagner’s Ring Cycle where Kerriann covered Helmwige, Gerhilde, and Ortlinde in Die Walküre as well as Third Norn in Götterdämmerung. In February 2016, Kerriann was featured in concert with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra singing duets and arias from Madama Butterfly and La Bohème with 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Final Winner Michael Brandenburg. Prior to that she was heard as the Witch (Hansel and Gretel) and Mary Curtis Lee (Glass’ Appomattox). Last summer, Kerriann was chosen as a Filene Young Artist and made her debut with Wolf Trap Opera singing La Contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro at The Barns and High Priestess in Aïda at the Filene Center. She returned for summer 2016 to sing Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia at The Barns and was featured in a Vocal Colors recital at the Phillips Collection.

In the 2014-2015 season at the Kennedy Center, she covered Madame Lidoine (New Prioress) in Dialogues of the Carmelites and created the role of Katherine in the world premiere of Penny by Douglas Pew. Ms. Otaño was seen in the summer of 2014 at the prestigious Glimmerglass Festival covering soprano lead Roberta Alden in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy and performed in concert alongside dramatic soprano Christine Goerke. During the 2013-2014 season, Kerriann was the soprano studio artist at Fort Worth Opera where she “nearly stole the show in the highly comedic role of Despina” in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. She received rave reviews calling her “vocally attractive and dramatically vivacious” and a “standout.”

In 2012-2013, Kerriann was an apprentice artist with Central City Opera and a 2013 winter apprentice artist at Sarasota Opera where she sang scenes from La Bohème (Leoncavallo and Puccini), A Postcard from Morocco (Argento), Ghosts of Versailles, Guillaume Tell, Die Fledermaus, and was featured on the closing Verdi’s Times concert as a soloist. In summer of 2012, Kerriann was a young artist at Seagle Music Colony where received acclaim for her “fiery” portrayal of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) “with richly nuanced voice.” Other recent credits include Maria Corona (The Saint of Bleecker Street) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) at Mannes Opera and Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte) at Indiana University Opera Theatre. She was a part of two recent workshops of new operas–as Mrs. Murray in Libby Larsen’s A Wrinkle in Time and as Elaine in Act 2 of Christopher Weiss ‘ In a Mirror, Darkly.

Ms. Otaño hails from Long Island, NY and holds a bachelors degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and a Masters Degree from Mannes College The New School for Music.