Hungarian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó is sought after as an artist of supreme musicianship and stagecraft.  This season, Krisztina performs Handel’s Messiah with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Judith in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Edmonton Opera, Madame Larina in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Margret in Berg’s Wozzeck with Canadian Opera Company, and a tour of George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill.

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This past season, she performed as Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw with Opera 5, was a featured artist in Iron Chef d’Orchestre with Tapestry Opera and Adieu Robert Schumann with Esprit Orchestra. In concert, she sang as the alto soloist in St. John Passion with the Vancouver Bach Choir, the world premiere of Alice Ho’s The Quietness of Winter with the Vancouver Island Symphony, and sang Marie and Angel 2 in Sir George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with the Orchestre National de Lille, Handel’s Messiah with Toronto Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dame Jane Glover, a featured soloist in Ethereal Visions with New Music Concerts, and the soprano II soloist in Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec.

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Ms. Szabó has performed with the San Francisco Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, and Wexford Festival Opera. In 2018, Krisztina made her Royal Opera and Dutch National Opera débuts in George Benjamin’s new opera, Lessons in Love and Violence, the recording of which received a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording. In Canada, she has performed with Tapestry Opera, Early Music Vancouver, Calgary Opera, Vancouver Opera, the Festival of the Sound, and the Canadian Opera Company. Roles include the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Vancouver Opera), Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel and Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle (Canadian Opera Company), Woman in Hosokawa’s The Raven (University of Toronto New Music Festival), Angel 2/Marie in Written on Skin (Opera Philadelphia), Dido in the world premiere of Aeneas and Dido (Toronto Masque Theatre), and Kulesha in From the Diary of Virginia Woolf (National Arts Centre Orchestra).

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Concerts from the classical canon have included Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (Music of Baroque), St. John Passion (Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra), Bach: Festive Cantatas (Early Music Vancouver), Bach B Minor Mass (Elora Festival, Vancouver Bach Choir, Music of the Baroque, Bethlehem Bach Festival, Arion Baroque Orchestra), Handel’s Messiah (Houston Symphony Orchestra, Portland Baroque, Early Music Vancouver, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Calgary Philharmonic), Beethoven’s Mass in C (Kansas City Symphony), Wesendonck Lieder (Toronto Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, Kitchener Waterloo Symphony), Mozart’s Requiem (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), and Mozart’s C Minor Mass (Cleveland Orchestra).

She has been twice nominated for Outstanding Performance by the Dora Awards and won a Dora Award for Best Ensemble as Claude Vivier in Kopernikus with Against the Grain Theatre.

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Her discography includes Dean Burry: The Highwayman (Centrediscs), Found Frozen:  Songs of Jeffrey Ryan (Centrediscs), New Jewish Music, Vol. 3 (Analekta), Ana Sokolovic – Sirens (Naxos), and Talisker Players Where Words and Music Meet (Centrediscs). 

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Digital projects include Canadian Opera Company’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Canadian Art Song Project’s Four Short Songs, Tafelmusik’s The Voice of Vivaldi,  Festival of the Sound’s Arias and Antics, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Vancouver Opera, An Italian Baroque Festive Celebration with Early Music Vancouver, performing in recital for the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and Behind the Keys for Vancouver Bach Choir, and Tapestry Opera’s S.O.S. Sketch Opera Singers.

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She has been the recipient of the Emerging Artist grant from Canada Council and has been honored by her hometown of Mississauga, Ontario with a star on the Music Walk of Fame.  

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Ms. Szabó holds a Diploma in Voice Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education at the University of Western Ontario, studying with Darryl Edwards. She also received training as part of the Canadian Opera Company Young Artist Programme. Krisztina lives in Vancouver and Toronto with her husband, Kristian Clarke and their daughter, Phoibe. Ms. Szabó is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at the University of British Columbia School of Music.