ASHLEY
EMERSON

With her sparkling voice and stage presence, soprano Ashley Emerson has been described as a "vocal and dramatic delight” (St. Louis Post Dispatch). In 2024-2025, she will perform selected songs of Haydn with the Brooklyn Art Song Society, will perform in a Valentine’s concert with the Aiken Symphony, and will reprise a signature role as Papagena with The Metropolitan Opera. In recent seasons, Ms. Emerson sang Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Kentucky Opera, a role she has also sung with Seattle Opera. She made her Boston Lyric Opera debut as Jeanette in L’amant anonyme,  joined the New Jersey Festival Orchestra as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and made her role debut as Despina in Così fan tutte with Cedar Rapids Opera. She also sang Johanna Barker in Sweeney Todd with Opera Omaha and appeared as Rapunzel in Into the Woods at HALO.

Ms. Emerson first sang Papagena in Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera in 2010, and has reprised the role with the Metropolitan Opera seven times over the last fifteen years.  She most recently performed the role with the Cleveland Orchestra led by esteemed conductor Franz Welser-Möst this past spring, and has also performed Papagena with Washington National Opera. In addition to Papagena, her most recent assignments with The Metropolitan Opera included covering Noemie in Cinderella and Xenia in Boris Godunov.  Ms. Emerson has been involved in over 200 performances with the Metropolitan Opera.  Ms. Emerson notably performed the role of Laura Fleet in the North American premiere of Nico Muhly’s Marnie, which was broadcast Live in HD to movie theaters worldwide, as well as Brigitta in Iolanta, Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore (Live in HD Broadcast), Fifteen-year-old girl in Lulu, and Alice in Le comte Ory.  She also covered Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.  She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro in 2007 and has since reprised the role in several seasons with the company.

Other roles include company debuts as Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Opera Omaha; Flora in The Turn of the Screw with On Site Opera; her European debut as Cunegonde in Candide with Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse; Flora in The Turn of the Screw with Los Angeles Opera, The Dallas Opera, and On Site Opera; Sister Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites at both Washington National Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Tebaldo in Don Carlo in a new production for Opera Philadelphia; and Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Des Moines Metro Opera. She has also sung major roles with Atlanta Opera, Central City Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Maine, Greensboro Opera, and The Tanglewood Festival.

With the Brooklyn Art Song Society, Ms. Emerson has performed several concerts in a range of repertoire including Shostakovich’s Opus 38, and The February House Recital in which they performed On This Island. Ms. Emerson curated a recital of love songs based on the works of Robert and Clara Schumann with her husband, tenor Dominic Armstrong, which they performed at numerous locations in the Eastern US.  Ms. Emerson has toured Russia with The Turne Agency in concerts celebrating the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth with numerous orchestras, and appeared in chamber music concerts at The Twickenham Festival. In concert, she has sung Handel’s Messiah (Part 1) with the New Choral Society, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Brahms’ Requiem, and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. During the 2020-2021 season, Ms. Emerson curated and starred in a web series for Kentucky Opera titled “Hoops and High Notes” and performed a recital of Beethoven and Schumann entitled “Wife, Children, and Friends” for the Truman Lyceum Series. 

Ms. Emerson holds awards from The Sullivan Foundation, The Gerda Lissner Competition, The Palm Beach Opera Competition, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. She has trained with the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Verbier Festival, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Ms. Emerson is a University of Southern Maine School of Music graduate.