A Grand Finals winner of the 2013 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, soprano Sydney Mancasola has been praised by the New York Times for her “lovely lyric soprano and radiant high notes.” The 2015 – 2016 season will mark Ms. Mancasola’s European debut at the Komische Oper Berlin as the three heroines in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Pamina in the Barrie Kosky production of Die Zauberflöte, and Servilia in a concert performance of Clemenza di Tito. She will also reprise the title role in Massenet’s Manon in a return to Des Moines Metro Opera, conducted by David Neely. Concert work includes her debut with the San Francisco Symphony in Handel’s Messiah, conducted by Ragnar Bohlin.

The 2014 – 2015 season saw Ms. Mancasola’s company debut with Palm Beach Opera as Marie in La fille du régiment and role debut as Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles with Florida Grand Opera. Ms. Mancasola also returned to Opera Theatre of St Louis as Lisette in Puccini’s La Rondine, of which the St Louis Post-Dispatch said “her singing and acting were both first-rate.” Concert work included Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Sun Valley Symphony, as well as Handel’s Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Operatic highlights include her company debut with Des Moines Metro Opera as Comtesse Adèle in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory; Marie (cover) in La fille du régiment with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; her professional debut as Young Alyce in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied with Fort Worth Opera; Adele in Die Fledermaus with the Brevard Music Center; Cunégonde in Candide and Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito with Oberlin Opera Theatre; and Zdenka (cover) in Arabella with Santa Fe Opera. Roles at AVA included Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Despina in Così fan tutte, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, and Antonia and Stella in Les Contes d’Hoffmann.

The concert stage has seen Ms. Mancasola in performance with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra for Haydn’s Die Schöpfung conducted by Danail Rachev, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, Strauss’ Brentano Lieder, and Handel’s Messiah with the Santa Fe Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Michael Rossi. She was also featured as a guest soloist in Schubert’s Mass in G and Mozart’s Exultate, Jubilate with the 2012 international music festival Calí de Camara in Colombia.

Honors and awards include Top Prize Winner of the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, 2nd Prize and Audience Favorite at the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition, and 1st Prize in the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition. Ms. Mancasola is an alumna of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, where she received the Judith Raskin Memorial Award for Singers, as well as the Gerdine Young Artist program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the Brevard Music Center.

Ms. Mancasola began her musical training as a classical violinist in her home state of California and went on to study voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree in 2011 and was the recipient of the Margot Bos Standler Scholarship.