Lyric Soprano, Kristen Donovan, is a performing artist who currently splits her time between Greensboro, North Carolina and Washington, DC. She began her musical journey in Virginia Beach where she learned to read music and gave her first public performance for an audience of over five hundred at the age of nine. While remaining extremely active in her church and school music programs, Kristen performed with the Virginia All State Chorus, the Virginia Senior Honors Choir, performed as a soloist for Beach Street USA and toured the midwest as a soloist for the Young Razzcals Jazz Project.
Upon Kristen’s move to Washington, D.C., she discovered opera. She began to appear in numerous opera productions including L’Elisir d’Amore (Giannetta), Suor Angelica (Suor Genovieffa), Die Zauberflöte (Erste Dame), Le Nozze di Figaro (Barbarina), The Impresario (Mademoiselle Silberklang) and The Gondoliers (Gianetta). Kristen has performed in premieres of new works including The Furies by Andrew Earle Simpson at Catholic University and The Crossroad by Roc Lee at The Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage Festival. In Philadelphia, Kristen sang Barbarina and covered Susanna in Miran Vaupotich’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro with the Atlantic Coast Opera Festival. In the Washington area, Kristen sang Nanette in Mlle Modiste with the Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Rosita in Zarzuela Di Si’s production of Luisa Fernanda and Sophia in I Lombardi with the Singers’ Theater of Washington. Kristen also enjoys bringing opera to those unable to get to the opera themselves. She has performed vocal solos and duets for the Georgetown Senior Center and performed in Monkey See, Monkey Do, a one act children’s opera for school children with the Opera Guild of Northern Virginia.
A passionate and versatile performer, Kristen enjoys applying all of her talents. She enjoys creating characters on stage as well as in front of the camera with area photographers. Her ballet, tap, jazz, modern and hip hop dance training is also a joy to bring to the stage. After performing original choreography for four years with a DC hip hop dance team, Kristen expanded her dance skills to include salsa, merengue and bachata. With Loudoun Lyric Opera, Kristen performed the dance roles of Lolo and Vilja in The Merry Widow .
Kristen holds a B.M. as well as a M.M. in Vocal Performance from the Catholic University of America’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music. She has also studied with the Crittenden Opera Studio and at the Bethesda Summer Music Festival for several seasons. Kristen has studied with artists such as Jean Carter, Jason Stearns, Sharon Christman, Rick Christman, Cate Frazier-Neely and Fabiana Bravo. Under the baton of Maestro Murry Sidlin, she performed in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass and in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Kennedy Center. She also took part in Murry Sidlin’s Defiant (Verdi) Requiem at NYC’s Lincoln Center and in Budapest, Hungary. With the Music Fest Perugia in Italy, Kristen performed as a soloist at the Teatro Caio Melisso in Spoleto and with the Bela Bartok Orchestra at the Sala dei Notari in Perugia.
Kristen sang regularly as a soloist and as a member of the Schola Cantorum under the direction of Thomas Stehle at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington for several years. Kristen returns to St. Matthew’s as a guest singer on occasion as well as other Washington places of worship, including: All Souls Memorial Episcopal, Saint Mary Mother of God, Saint Bartholomew’s, The Church of the Holy City, Vienna Presbyterian Church and Saint Peter’s on Capitol Hill.
New to North Carolina, Kristen has been joining the musicians at various places of worship, including St. Paul the Apostle in Greensboro and Duke University Chapel in Durham. Kristen also directs the Hosanna Chorale in Greensboro.
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Kristen is incredibly honored and grateful to have sung for Pope Francis’ first US prayer service in Washington, DC. Click here to take the pledge to walk with him.
Kristen has witnessed so many beautiful weddings over the years and is so honored to share in this special moment with couples. Check out some of Kristen’s reviews on Wedding Wire.
