Tessa McQueen was named a 2024 National Finalist in the Metropolitan OperaEric and Dominique Laffont Competition. She joins the prestigious Merola Opera Program for the summer of 2024.
She spent her 2023 summer at Wolf Trap Opera as a first year Studio Artist where she covered Marguerite in Faust. She sang in the chorus of Semele and Faust and performed in the Studio Spotlight Scenes program.
McQueen most recently sang the Female Chorus in the 2024 spring opera The R*** of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten conducted by Ben Manis and directed by R.B. Schlather. This production was a double bill of Dido and Aeneas and The R*** of Lucretia in the Morrison Theatre at the Brockman Hall for Opera at Rice University. In the spring of 2023, she sang the title role of Poppea in L'incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi conducted by Gary Thor Wedow and directed by Jennifer Williams.
She became a 2024 Colorado-Wyoming District Winner and a Rocky Mountain Region Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. In 2022 and 2023 she was named a Tulsa District Winner advancing to the Midwest Region, placing 3rd in 2022. She was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Encouragement Award winner from the Tulsa District in January of 2020.
She competed in the 2023 Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition and placed 3rd. She won the Myrle F. Hoffman Memorial Award, placing 3rd, in the 2022 Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition for Colorado singers. She won a Certificate of Merit in the 2023 Finals.
She joined Central City Opera in their 2022 season to sing Krystyna Zywulska in the newly edited premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Two Remain (Out of Darkness). McQueen was a season sponsored Young Artist by the El Pomar Foundation while in residence. She then received the prestigious Young Artist Award at the end of the season.
On the concert stage, McQueen debuted with the Washington City Choir, in D.C. in January 2024, as the Soprano II Soloist for Mozart’s Grand C-minor Mass. This performance was led by Erin Freeman. McQueen performed as the Soprano Soloist with the Rice Chorale in John Rutter’s Requiem, led by Tom Jaber and Dr. Andrea Jaber in a 9/11 memorial tribute in 2022.
In 2020, McQueen was an Opera-To-Go Young Artist with Opera Saratoga. She sang the roles of Jack’s Mother and the Giant’s Wife in their touring production of Jack and The Beanstalk adapted by John Davies.
McQueen received her Master’s of Music in Voice Performance from Rice University (‘24). She is currently under the tutelage of her teacher at Rice, Nova Thomas. She coached with Tom Jaber, Bethany Self, Alex Munger, Lyndsi Maus, Nino Sanikidze, and Luke Housner while in attendance. She received herBachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from Oklahoma City University (‘19), graduating with honors. She studied with Larry Keller while in attendance and coached with Jan McDaniel and Chuck Koslowske. Solo credits from OCU include Marie (Smetana’s The Bartered Bride), Susannah Polk (Floyd’s Susannah), and Cendrillon (Massenet’s Cendrillon).
Ms. McQueen looks forward to announcing her plans for the 2024-2025 season at a later date…TBA!
