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Soprano

Michelle Trainor

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Versatile singing actress Michelle Trainor is known for her “powerful, penetrating soprano” (Wall
Street Journal) and as both a “comic genius” and “vocal treat” (Boston Globe). A graduate of the
Boston Lyric Opera’s Emerging Artist program, Trainor has become “a favorite of the Boston opera
scene,” (Schmopera) in productions of contemporary opera including The Handmaid’s
Tale, Burke & Hare and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. In standard rep like Macbeth, Barber of
Seville and Threepenny Opera, she was described by Berkshire Fine Arts as “an ebullient comedian”
who steals “every scene she is in with her pure joie de vivre.”

2022 saw Michelle on the concert stage with a Diva, Diva, Divo concert in Nashua, NH, appearing in the summer concert series with Boston Lyric Opera and she returned to the Boston Symphony Orchestra as an ensemble soloist in their performance of Wozzeck at Symphony and Carnegie Halls.  She ended the season with a debut with Opera Columbus in their production of La Cenerentola as Clorinda.

In the summer of 2021, Ms. Trainor made her Bulgarian debut creating the role of
Gertrude in the world premiere and recording of Joseph Summer’s Hamlet in a
collaboration between the State Opera Ruse, Parma Recordings and the Shakespeare
Concert Series. Engagements canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic included singing
Aksinya in Shostakovitch’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Boston Symphony Orchestra at
Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall, along with a Deutsche Gramophone recording of the
production, and performing the role of Jill-All-Alone in Merrie England with Odyssey
Opera. In the fall of 2021 she will be singing the role of Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn
of the Screw with IlluminArts in Miami, FL, with whom she also performed as guest soloist
in the online collaboration, “Unmasked” in December 2020.
Possessing a unique voice that encompasses soprano, mezzo and character roles across
vocal fachs, Ms. Trainor is always up to try any new role, especially if it gives her the
chance to hone her fierce comedic instincts as with Berta (Barber of Seville), Marcellina
(Marriage of Figaro) or Mrs. Peachum (Threepenny Opera) and dive deep into an
interesting character like her “fiery, remorseful” (Arts Fuse) Brangain in The Love Potion.

The past few seasons have been filled with debuts for Ms. Trainor, including the roles of
Benoni in Gounod’s lesser known La Reine de Saba with Odyssey Opera, Berta in Barber
of Seville with both Boston Lyric Opera and with Michigan Opera Theatre – her house
debut – in their production of Rossini’s opera directed by Christopher Mattaliano, and
Helen McDougal in the World premiere of Julian Grant’s The Nefarious, Immoral but
Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare. She made her debut with Boston
Modern Orchestra Project in their performance of Haroun and the Sea of Stories in the
roles Oneeta/Princess/Batcheat, premiered La Madre in Omar Najmi’s En la Ardient
Oscuridad and returned to Boston Lyric Opera to sing Miss Lightfoot in Gregory Spears’
groundbreaking opera Fellow Travelers and Ofglen in Ruder’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Other
recent performances include the roles of Jocaste in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (Emmanuel
Music), Milliner in Der Rosenkavalier (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Miss Jessel inThe
Turn of the Screw (Enigma Chamber Opera), Ghita in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (Odyssey
Opera), and the title role in Suor Angelica (Metro West Opera), for which she was
nominated by ArtsImpulse for Best Female Performer in an Opera. The Boston Musical
Intelligencer deemed her recording on the BIS label of a staged version of Schubert’s
early song Hagar’s Lament “spell-binding.”

As a concert soloist, Trainor has performed in Mozart’s Requiem, Mass in C Minor, Solemn
Vespers and Missa Brevis in B Flat, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis, Nicholas White’s Magnificat, and Vaughn
Williams’ A Sea Symphony. Trainor made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Mahler’s
Eighth Symphony with Canterbury Choral Society. She has performed at Boston’s First
Night and has sung works with the Composers in Red Sneakers where she was described
as having a “huge yet flexible sound and excellent diction” by the New Music Connoisseur.
She joined the stage with Boston Ballet in their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
as the soprano soloist and performed Isolde’s Liebestod from Brookline Symphony
Orchestra from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.

Among her accolades, Trainer counts the Boston Lyric Opera’s Shrestinian Award for
Excellence and St. Botolph Club Grant, along with first place wins in the New Jersey
Verismo Opera Competition, New England Regional NATSAA and the Peter Elvins’
Competition. She has been a NATSAA National Finalist and winner of the Berton Coffin
Award, and was a finalist in the Concorso Lirico di Fedora Barbieri, Career Bridges Grant
Award as well as the Rochester Oratorio Society Vocal Competition.

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