Erin Morley

One of today’s most sought-after lyric coloratura sopranos, Erin Morley has been praised for the “silken clarity of her voice and the needlepoint precision of her coloratura” (The New York Times). A recipient of the Beverly Sills Award and a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, her performances have garnered critical acclaim worldwide. She regularly appears on major opera stages such as the Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Glyndebourne Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera, where she has sung more than 100 performances and has been featured in five Live in HD broadcasts.

In the 2024-25 season, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera with a double appearance as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann and as Gilda in Rigoletto. Further highlights included her return to Arena di Verona and her performance as Cunegonde in concert performances of Candide at the Semperoper Dresden. Elsewhere, Morley toured Berlin and Vienna as a soloist with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Berlin in a program of Strauss' Orchesterlieder, with additional appearances with Boston Baroque and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In recital, she presented Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with Huw Montague Rendall and Malcolm Martineau at London’s Wigmore Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and performs her “Rose in Bloom” program at Park Avenue Armory, Yale School of Music, Friends of Chamber Music, and at the BRAVO! Series at Brigham Young University.

Last season, Morley made her highly anticipated company debuts with the Royal Ballet and Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto and at Teatro La Fenice in Venice as Zerbinetta in a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos. Further highlights on the concert platform included her debut at Arena di Verona in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and her performance as Morgana in Alcina with Les Musiciens du Louvre under the baton of Marc Minkowski at Teatro alla Scala, marking the release of a new recording of the opera on Pentatone. Additional engagements included the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Orchestre de Paris under Andrés Orozco Estrada, a gala concert with Washington Concert Opera, Poulenc’s Gloria with the Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Juraj Valčuha, Brahms’ Requiem with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall conducted by Xian Zhang, and recitals in Berkeley and at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., marking the release of her solo recital album, "Rose in Bloom."

Recent operatic highlights have included singing Pamina in a new production of Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, and Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, all at the Metropolitan Opera; her debut at Teatro alla Scala as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos; Gilda in a new production of Rigoletto, Tytania in a new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as Zerbinetta and Sophie all at the Wiener Staatsoper; Norina in Don Pasquale and Zerbinetta at Glyndebourne Festival; a critically acclaimed debut in the iconic coloratura role of Lakmé with Washington Concert Opera; Gilda at Staatsoper Berlin; Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Sophie at Opéra de Paris; Fiakermilli in Arabella and Gilda at Bayerische Staatsoper; Lucia di Lammermoor in Nancy; Tytania, Roxana in Krol Roger, Mme. Silberklang in Der Schauspieldirektor, and the title role in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale, all at Santa Fe Opera. Cunegonde in Candide is another signature role that Morley has performed with LA Opera alongside James Conlon and actors Kelsey Grammer and Christine Ebersole; with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Alek Shrader, Bradley Cooper, and Carey Mulligan; and at Carnegie Hall’s centenary with John Lithgow.

On the concert platform, Morley has performed with leading orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent successes include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti; Carmina Burana with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Festival conducted by Andris Nelsons; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor for the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center conducted by Louis Langrée; a tour with Harry Bicket and The English Concert; the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; the Met Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall; and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorenzo Viotti at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna’s Musikverein. Morley also appeared in the famous televised New Year’s Eve concerts with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann, performing Princess Mi in Léhar’s Das Land des Lächelns. A dedicated recitalist, her collaborators have included pianists Vlad Iftinca, Ken Noda, Gerald Martin Moore, and Malcolm Martineau.

Morley’s debut recital disc with Gerald Martin Moore, "Rose in Bloom," released in 2024, has received critical acclaim worldwide, with praise for the “crystalline debut of a new high coloratura star.” Morley’s recordings include Morgana in a complete recording of Handel’s Alcina for the Pentatone label, Eurydice in the Met’s Grammy-nominated recording of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, Princesse Isabelle in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable with Opéra National de Bordeaux for Palazzetto Bru Zane, Sister Constance in the Met’s Grammy-nominated Les Dialogues des Carmélites, as well as Sophie in the Met’s Grammy-nominated Der Rosenkavalier on DVD/Blu-Ray for Decca; Mater Gloriosa in the LA Phil’s Grammy-winning Mahler Symphony No. 8 with Gustavo Dudamel for Deutsche Grammophon; Princess Mi in the Staatskapelle Dresden’s Das Land des Lächelns with Christian Thielemann for Unitel; Sandrina in La Finta Giardinierawith Emmanuelle Haïm for Opéra de Lille’s production for the Erato label; Woglinde in Götterdämmerung in the Metropolitan Opera’s Grammy-winning Lepage Ring Cycle for Deutsche Grammophon; Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots, live from Bard SummerScape with the American Symphony Orchestra; Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3, Espansiva with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic for Da Capo Records; and Sylvie in Gounod’s opéra-comique La Colombe with Sir Mark Elder and The Hallé Orchestra for the Opera Rara label.

Morley spent her early years studying violin and piano, frequently collaborating with her mother, violinist Elizabeth Palmer. An undergraduate at the Eastman School of Music, she went on to earn her Master of Music in voice from Juilliard and her artist diploma from the Juilliard Opera Center, where she received the Florence & Paul DeRosa Prize. Morley also trained at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, the Ravinia Festival Steans Institute, and the Wolf Trap Opera Company as a Filene Young Artist. She won first prize in the Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition in 2002 and first place in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition in 2006. She also received the Richard Tucker Career Grant in 2013, the Beverly Sills Award in 2021, the Opera News Award in 2023, the Eastman School of Music Centennial Award in 2023, and the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government in 2024.