Malinda Haslett

Malinda Haslett, soprano, is a versatile performer and scholar of international recognition. Her 2020-21 schedule consists of solo recitals in Boston, Paris, London, and Maine, two Black Lives Matter concerts focusing on the works of BIPOC composers, and stage directing Die Zauberflöte. She continues her research on French female Resistance Composers: Elsa Barraine and Claude Arrieu, and looks forward to releasing her first solo recording.

The 2019-20 season was one spent largely championing living composers and women in music. Chosen to present at the 2nd International Women’s Work in Music Festival in Wales, she began the season by showcasing the works of Claude Arrieu. Closely afterward, she performed solo recitals at University of Southern Maine and Tulane University, focusing largely on historically persecuted composers. Orchestral performances include Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate at Merrill Hall in Portland, Maine, followed by John Mackey’s Places We No Longer Go with Casco Bay Wind Symphony. She created an annual fundraising event, with pianist Scott Wheatley, with proceeds benefitting Florence House in Portland, Maine. The inaugural recital was entitled: The 19 th Amendment: The Women Who Risked Everything for Liberty.

Selected past international performances solo performances include those at the Royal Opera House (London, UK), solo recitals in Beirut (Lebanon) and Danang (Vietnam). Her Berlin debut took place at the famed Konzerthaus in the German premiere of Ethel Smyth’s Prison.  She has sung Nannetta in Falstaff, both with the Le Grand Théâtre de Limoges and the Le Grand Théâtre d Reims.  She has sung Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Micaëla in Carmen with the Festival Lyrique-en-mer and in Italy, Ms. Haslett won the competitions Concorso Internazionale di Tito Schipa and Concorso Internazionale di Roma.  With the Quintessence Chamber Ensemble, Ms. Haslett has sung throughout the Baltic region of Asia, Turkey, Estonia, Russia, Norway and Sweden.  In Canada, Ms. Haslett has sung with the Calgary Symphony, and in Mexico she made her debut with Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Ópera de Zapopan.

In the United States, Ms. Haslett’s portrayal as Pamina was reviewed by Opera News as having been sung “with such meltingly limpid phrases that the audience held its collective breath.”  She won Artist of the Year for the role with Syracuse Opera and twice performed the role with Opera Company Brooklyn.  Other title and leading role appearances have heard Ms. Haslett with Nashville Opera in the world premiere of Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein’s Elmer Gantry and reprising her role as Lulu with Great Performances at Montclair.  As Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, she has performed with Utah Symphony and Opera, Nashville Opera and Opera Columbus.  As Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, she has sung with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, Syracuse Opera, and The West Virginia Symphony.  Having appeared as both heroines in La Bohème, she has sung Musetta with West Bay Opera and Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra and Mimí at the Altamura Center for the Arts.  She has twice appeared with the Fort Worth Opera as Norina in Don Pasquale and Mabel in Pirates of Penzance, twice with Sarasota Opera as Nannetta in Falstaff and Leïla in Les pêcheurs des perles, twice with Virginia Opera as Valencienne in Die Lustige Witwe and Berta in Il barbiere di siviglia with the Virginia Opera.  Further performances have included Marie in La fille du Régiment with the Lyric Opera of Cleveland, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera with the Atlanta Opera, Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Augusta Opera, and Zerlina with Opera Carolina.