Heralded by the Brooklyn Discovery as “visually and vocally another bright ray,” mezzo soprano Michaela Larsen has a voice that is “plangent [and] coupled with excellent stagecraft.” Her impeccable technique and regal stage presence ground her, providing a rich foundation for creative exploration and daring, spell-binding artistry. She leaves no stone unturned when it comes to repertoire–equally at home in and vocally suited to

Baroque, Contemporary, and Romantic repertoire, and with a crystallized intelligence and devoted attention to every last detail on the score’s pages that is proven through her nuanced, bold delivery. The 2025-2026 season will see several role debuts: Dido (Purcell’

s Dido & Aeneas), Santuzza (Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana), La Zelatrice (Puccini’

s Suor Angelica),and Rosina (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia). She will be engaged as an

Eder Emerging Artist with Charlottesville Opera and a Resident Artist at the TUNDI Wagner in Vermont Festival in Brattleboro, Vermont during the Summer 2026 season, where she will perform as a Flower Maiden in Parsifal, chorus in Die Fliegende Holländer, and cover Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, alongside her beloved husband, principal hornist Noah Fotis-Larsen. 

Operatic credits include: Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Chautauqua Opera Conservatory, Sunnyside Opera, Stony Brook Opera, and Vienna Summer Music Festival; Hermia (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) with Chicago Summer Opera; the title role in Gustav Holst’s Sāvitri; Jean in Jules Massenet’s Le portrait de Manon, Venus in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis; and Nancy in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herringwith Stony Brook Opera. Ms. Larsen appears frequently with the New York Philharmonic Chorus and made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the company’s acclaimed Verdi Requiem in September 2023, returning in

the 2024-25 season in Beethoven’s Fidelio. 

Ms. Larsen shines especially brightly in new works, appearing in Michael Ching’s Notes on Viardot, a whimsical historical account of the illustrious singer/composer Pauline Viardot. Ms. Larsen portrayed the diva with Music OnSite in Wichita, Kansas in December 2024, receiving high praise from the composer himself for her interpretation of the role. A warmly received return to Wichita saw her portrayal of pioneering woman pilot, Louise Thaden, in Lisa DeSpain and Rachel Peters’s Staggerwing, her debut performance with Opera Kansas. She was a Young Artist at the Chautauqua Institution’s Opera Conservatory in the Summer of 2025, where she sang in the orchestral workshop of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo, as well as Manuel de Falla’s La Vida Breve, appearing as Carmela.

Outside of her work as a performer, Ms. Larsen is an avid scholar and educator, currently completing her Doctoral Studies at Stony Brook University, where she has presented her research on the life and work of Pauline Viardot, particularly her arrangements of Chopin’s Mazurkas. She is currently serving as Adjunct Professor of Voice at City University of New York–LaGuardia. Ms. Larsen has been engaged as a research partner with a team from the Stony Brook University Hospital and Renaissance School of Medicine to contribute to the knowledge of singing’s impact on patients with Long COVID, sustained diaphragmatic function, and overall quality of life. She is also a Voice Specialist with Shakespeare for Parkinson’s, a theatre troupe based in New York City that engages with the works of Shakespeare and devised theatre as a therapeutic and community-building resource for persons living with Parkinson’s Disease. At the heart of her vibrant artistic endeavors, regardless of their shapes or forms, Michaela is committed to sharing the fact that singing is for everyone, and the power of the human voice is unshakable as long as she has breath in her lungs.