Cierra Byrd

MEZZO-SOPRANO

American mezzo-soprano Cierra Byrd is a recent graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. In the 2024/25 season she joins Chicago Opera Theater creating the role of Jeanette Reese in the world premiere of Jasmine Barnes’ She Who Dared, she also joins Opera Theater of St. Louis for workshops and performances for their New Works Collective. Last season she returned to the Metropolitan Opera reprising Bertha in Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones while also joining the company for their production of Madama Butterfly, joined Houston Grand Opera for their production of Jake Heggie’s Intelligence, and joined PAC NYC for their production of Ruo’s An American Soldier. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Bertha in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and this past season joined the company for Woman of Crete in Idomeneo and Sister Mathilde in Dialogues des Carmélites. Also last season, she made her role and company debut as Fatima in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ new opera Omar at Boston Lyric Opera, sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with The Orchestra Now.

Other recent performances include the Witch in Hansel und Gretel with Opera Saratoga, and Princiepessa in Suor Angelica and Lady Catherine DeBourgh in Pride and Prejudice with Peabody Opera. On the concert stage, Ms. Byrd recently joined the Metropolitan Opera for their NYC Summer Stage Recital series, appeared as a featured soloist in Adolphus Hailstork’s A Knee on the Neck with New York Choral Society, and as Medoro and Alcina in a concert production of Furiosus, a new opera in two acts in collaboration with New York University’s Casa Italiana under the baton of Robert Tweeten. She also joined New Jersey Youth Symphony for Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony, joined the LyricFest Philadelphia for Cotton, and Peabody Camber Orchestra for de Falla’s El Amor Bruno.

Ms.Byrd was named a winner of the inaugural Duncan Williams Voice Competition, a voice competition presented by New York City Opera and Manhattan School of Music. She is a grant winner from the Gerda Lissner Voice Competition, a finalist of the Lotte Lenya Voice Competition, winner of the Legacy Award from the National Opera Association’s Carolyn Bailey Argento Vocal Competition, a finalist in Opera Ebony’s Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition, and winner of the Peabody Artist Excellence Award. She is an alumna of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera’s apprentice artist program, and Opera Saratoga’s young artist program. She holds degrees from Ohio State University and the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with legendary mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.

Management Territory: Worldwide