“Nothing in the evening’s latter portion could match Kinabrew’s stunning account of the Queen’s famous, revenge-maddened aria. Not only did she execute the vocal pyrotechnics with steel-hot precision, she did so in a verismo-scale act of pressing a knife into Pamina’s hands as a murderess-to-be. The aria brought the house down on Thursday. More importantly it raised the stakes of the action and made Pamina’s courage all the more heroic.”
-San Francisco Classical Voice
This season, Maggie Kinabrew joins Palm Beach Opera as an Apprentice Artist, where she will cover Clotilde in Norma, study cover the four heroines in Les contes d’Hoffmann, and perform in their annual Resident Artist Showcase. Maggie also makes her debut as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with Bethesda-By-The-Sea in Palm Beach, and her company debut with Boston Opera Collaborative in their immersive horror-opera experience, Whispers: Echoes from the Halls.
In summer 2023, Maggie joined Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist, where she covered Semele in Semele and performed in the choruses of Semele and Faust. In 2022, Maggie made her professional debut as Die Königin der Nacht at the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco and debuted the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with the IU Opera Theater.
Other operatic credits include Der Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte with IU Opera Theater, Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cunegonde in a centennial celebration of Leonard Bernstein at Oberlin Conservatory, as well as the title role in Händel’s Teseo at the Miami Music Festival and Fortuna in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Oberlin in Italy. An avid performer of contemporary music, Maggie has also performed as Nuria in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar (Miami Music Festival), Taller Daughter in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, and Ensemble in Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone (Oberlin Opera Theater). She has premiered many of composer Kari Watson’s works, such as Let Me Count the Signs and Black is the Color…, and gave the world premiere of Sarah Ann Marze’s Two Sewing Songs in April 2021.
On the concert stage, Maggie has performed as the soloist in the world premiere of Younje Cho’s For all we took and the soprano soloist in Unsuk Chin’s Puzzles and Games with the IU New Music Ensemble, the soprano soloist in Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass) with the IU Chorale, and the soprano soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Oberlin Musical Union.
Maggie was named a district winner in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. In 2020, Maggie was named a Fulbright finalist, and was also awarded the Louis and Marguerite Bloomberg Greenwood Prize for excellence in voice. She was a finalist in the 2019 Oberlin Conservatory Concerto Competition. Maggie holds bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and voice from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a master’s degree in voice from Indiana University. She is a student of Carol Vaness.