Soprano | Christina Kay, Soprano

About

Soprano Christina Kay’s sharp ear, vocal flexibility, and love for collaboration and harmony have allowed her to enjoy a multi-faceted career as a soloist and ensemble singer, from opera, musical theater, and art song, to early, contemporary, and folk music.

Christina first discovered her love of music at the piano and singing in the local youth choir. Originally on track to pursue piano performance, she chose to refocus on singing in high school, and studied music in college alongside German and creative writing courses. During the pandemic, she found work as an ESL writer, combining her loves of writing and teaching to become a published author. After a year of no in-person performances, Christina joined Grammy-nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra for their April 2021 “bubble” project, singing three concert programs including Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and Joseph Hadyn’s Theresienmesse. In Summer 2021, she performed in the chorus of Le Roi Arthus at the BardSummerscape Festival and in the Bard Music Festival Chorus, honoring the works of Nadia Boulanger and her contemporaries, and joined the Santa Fe Desert Chorale in New Mexico for their Winter Festival.

An avid performer of early music, Christina made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah with MasterWork Chorus and Orchestra. Her skill with Renaissance and Baroque-era repertoire has led her to notable summer festivals, including the Carmel Bach Festival's Virginia Best Adams Masterclass, the American Bach Soloists Academy, and the Baroque Opera Workshop at Queens College. In New York City, she performs with period ensembles ARTEK and The American Classical Orchestra, and has also appeared with Brooklyn Baroque, Ensemble Leonarda, and Gotham Early Music. Christina enjoys writing and performing her own arrangements of popular 16th century madrigals, and has a vested interest in helping singers explore and popularize diminution practice amongst American early music ensembles and audiences.

Since moving to New York City in 2016, Christina’s commitment to contemporary repertoire has opened doors to unconventional opportunities. In Fall 2021, she premiered the title role in an Act I preview of Timothy Lee Miller's The Bird Lady, a love story with themes of environmental preservation. Pre-pandemic, she appeared as Mormon actress-turned-porn-star Daphne Blueberry in the premiere performance of David Chesky’s satirical opera, La Farranucci (her first opera sharing the stage with drones!). In April 2018, she debuted with S.E.M. Ensemble singing the leading role in Petr Kotik's chamber opera, Master-Pieces, for which she was praised as portraying a "vital, intelligent, generous and deeply rewarding" Gertrude Stein (Theater Scene). The show's success led to a subsequent performance at the Ostrava in Prague Festival in November 2018. Christina has been part of many other premieres, including a romantic album of folk-influenced music with the eclectic Home Port Vocal Trio.

Alongside her performance endeavors, Christina has taught voice and piano lessons since 2012, most recently working with middle and high school students at Highbridge Voices in the Bronx. When not performing and teaching, she enjoys putting her obsession with lists and spreadsheets into practice as Music Administrator at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where she coordinates the Great Music in a Great Space concert series. Christina resides in the Heights and in her free time loves taking long walks in local parks, reading, listening to podcasts, and drinking lots of bubble tea.

Media

"Kay’s singing and speaking, and her brilliantly acted, triumphant concluding certainty that the philosophical truths she has arrived at are both intelligible and important were so vibrant and alive that the opera [Master-Pieces] felt big and gorgeous." - TheaterScene