ABOUT

As a soprano, collaborative artist, and educator, I create transformative experiences that connect people with themselves, each other, and the world. 

Programming and performing thought-provoking repertoire spanning more than two dozen languages and 900 years, I endeavor to spark curiosity, deep empathetic responses, and reflection to shape our collective journey for the better. 

“Manifestly courageous” (Boston Globe) and “inspired” (New York Times) soprano Stacey Mastrian is a Fulbright Grantee, Beebe Fellow, and Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient.  Her repertoire extends from Hildegard von Bingen and Beatriz de Día to Machaut and Monteverdi, through Mozart and Verdi to the present, and she has sung in more than two dozen languages. In addition to standard classical repertoire, she specializes in art song, Italian vocal music, 20th- and 21st-century vocal works, and works that highlight social issues and innovation.  Highly sought-after as performer of works by Luigi Nono and his Italian predecessors and contemporaries, American composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, and those influenced by them, as well as women and other underrepresented composers, she is frequently the catalyst behind collaborative multi-disciplinary creative partnerships and events to share these works.

In 2024 she has appeared at St. James Cathedral in Seattle as soprano soloist for the Mozart Vespers, performing in recital for Comites San Francisco + Il Punto Italian Cultural Society + Seattle Chamber Orchestra, singing humorous songs arranged for her with the Sammamish Symphony Orchestra, in recital in Hawaii, and in a solo art song program broadcast on Classical KING FM 98.1. In April she made her Benaroya Hall debut as guest soloist with the Kirkland Choral Society, singing Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and the west coast premiere of the voting-rights cantata Say My Name by Reena Esmail. She returned to Benaroya Hall as featured soloist with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, singing the U.S. premiere of Grace Williams’ Fairest of Stars, with text by John Milton text, and the ethereally gorgeous Luonnotar by Sibelius. Her 2024-2025 season includes performances with the Federal Way Symphony in Washington, Mill City String Quartet in Minnesota, and more.

Stacey Mastrian has performed with the Konzerthaus Orchestra at the Konzerthaus and at the Maxim Gorki Theater (Berlin), at the Teatro La Fenice (Venice) for the 50th anniversary production of Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 under the baton of Lothar Zagrosek, with the Opera in Roma Baroque Orchestra, Nova Amadeus Orchestra, and Rome Symphony Orchestra (Rome), at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur (Montréal), St. Peter’s (Vatican City), Fondazione Cini with the Experimentalstudio Freiburg and Palazzo Pisani (Venice), and in collaboration with Nuria Schoenberg Nono at the Conservatorio di Musica Respighi (Latina) and in Venice.  She has performed in Morelia and Puebla, Mexico and has made acclaimed appearances across the U.S., notably with CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, as Gilda in Rigoletto with the Summer Opera Theatre Company, as Mabel for thirty productions of The Pirates of Penzance with the Washington Savoyards, for Music of Remembrance, with the Emerald Ensemble, multiple orchestras and experimental artistic collectives (including as a core member of The Bay Players Experimental Music Collective and a founding member of Unbound Arts, Ecco Chamber Ensemble, Interplait, No Steve, seconds, SM2, and When Morty Met John), guitarist and Yamaha artist Alejandra Reyes, and Vocal Arts DC.  As a Young Artist with Opera Lafayette, she has performed Charpentier and Gluck at the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and she made her debut with the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall as winner of The Respighi Prize.

The New York Times has praised her for “intensity, focus, and a warm, passionate sound,” and her singing has been hailed by the Berliner Zeitung as “very impressive…tremendous ease and beauty.”  Dr. Mastrian has appeared in broadcasts on Georgian National Radio, Rete Toscana Classica, EWTN, FRANCE2, KBFG, KCIS, KING FM, KPBX, NPR, RAI3, WETA, WMMT, and WPIC.  Christopher Shultis composed the protest opera Lost in the Woods, with texts by Thoreau, for her and for the Akros Percussion Collective, which has been performed in New York, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and more. Other composers with whom she has collaborated include Sarah Bassingthwaighte, Mike Boyd, Thomas DeLio, Martin Gendelman, Mark Hilliard Wilson, Kyle Johnson, Stephen Lilly, Raimundo Pereira Martinez, Lawrence Moss, Tomek Regulski, Roberto Terelle, Kristian Twombly, Stefano Vasselli, and Steve Wanna; she has worked with visionary choreographers Elisa Foshay and Tzveta Kassabova.  Her recordings of works by Thomas DeLio appear on four titles on the Neuma label, with Opera Lafayette on two NAXOS CDs, and on several video game soundtracks. Her first full-length solo CD, Sonnets and Fables — Post-Puccini: Part I, was released on the Stradivarius label to critical acclaim. She has three titles in post-production, including a project supported by a 2016 Jack Straw Artist Award. 

Dr. Mastrian has received awards from The American Bach Society/Bethlehem Bach Choir, International Joseph Traxel Society, Maryland Opera Society, Mu Phi Epsilon, National Association of Teachers of Singing, National Italian American Foundation, Rosa Ponselle Foundation, Seattle Opera Guild, Shoshana Foundation, and Vocal Arts DC.  She has been honored with scholarship support to attend the SongFest professional program and a Max Kade scholarship for the German for Singers program at Middlebury College, and she received Second Place from The American Prize in Vocal Performance (Women in Art Song and Oratorio), 2017-18—The Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award.

Her principal studies were with Elizabeth Daniels and Martha Randall, both of whom studied with Todd Duncan. She also has trained with Jack Livigni and other bel canto teachers and currently works with Erich Parce.  She carries on the new music traditions that she learned through coaching with Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Michiko Hirayama, Judith Kellock, Ruth Lakeway, Joan Logue, Susanne Otto, Liliana Poli, André Richard, Lucy Shelton, and Alvise Vidolin.

Dr. Mastrian has given dozens of lectures, masterclasses, and recitals in over half of the states in the U.S., as well as in British Columbia and Mexico. She has been Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Voice at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College and has taught at American University, Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, and University of Maryland College Park. Dr. Mastrian runs an independent voice studio and is a diction coach and functional anatomy facilitator (mastrianstudio.com).

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