Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Mariya joined the Santa Fe Opera as a member of the Apprentice Singer Program in Summer 2016, and Arizona Opera as a Studio Artist in the 2016-2017 Season. Upcoming roles include Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Tisbe in La Cenerentola.

A 2015 San Francisco District Winner and Western Regional Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Russian-American Mezzo-Soprano Mariya Kaganskaya makes several role debuts in the 2015-2016 Season, including La Nourrice in Milhaud’sMédée at Mills College, Marta in Iolanta and Hostess in Boris Godunov with New Opera NYC, and Teacher in the workshop of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs for the Santa Fe Opera, as well as Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Julia Bertram in the West Coast premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she is currently a postgraduate student in the studio of Catherine Cook.

Engagements in the 2014-2015 Season included performing Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti and Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the San Francisco Conservatory. She also joined Opera Santa Barbara as a Mosher Studio Artist, performing Mexican Woman in A Streetcar Named Desire, premiered Will You, Won’t You?, a song cycle written for her by acclaimed composer Elinor Armer, and made debuts in Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, China, performing with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Philharmonicas a Young Artist with the iSing International Festival.

Highlights of Mariya’s 2013-2014 Season included performing the title role of Handel’s Serse at the San Francisco Conservatory and Olga in Eugene Onegin with the Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and covering the role of Elena in the American premiere of Adam Gorb’s Anya17 for Opera Parallèle, as well as performances with the SFCM New Music Ensemble, SFCM Opera Workshop, and the San Francisco Opera educational outreach program.

Mariya has also performed full roles including Cornelia in Giulio Cesare and Volupia in L’Egisto, partial roles including Charlotte (Werther), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Idamante (Idomeneo), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Angelina (La Cenerentola), The Fox (The Little Prince), and Mme Pernelle (Tartuffe), and various scenes, with favorites including Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Polina (The Queen of Spades), Mallika (Lakmé), Auntie (Peter Grimes), Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia), and the Third Lady and Third Spirit (The Magic Flute). Her chorus work includes John Adams’ A Flowering Tree with Riverside Lyric Opera, and Les pêcheurs de perles, Die Fledermaus, and Il Trovatore with Opera San José.

In addition to opera, Mariya is a frequent concert soloist and chamber music collaborator. She was recently the Alto soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Santa Clara Chorale and Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the San Francisco Master Chorale, and has performed both Alto and Soprano soli in Fauré’s Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Handel’s Messiah with the UC San Diego Chamber Singers. She was featured in the late János Négyesy‘s Soirée for Music Lovers series, collaborating with Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter; other notable collaborations have been with Professors John Fonville and Philip Larson.

Mariya is equally passionate about contemporary classical music, and enjoys collaborating with living composers. She has worked in master classes with composers Lembit Beecher and Tobias Picker, and premiered works by Elinor Armer, Ilya Demutsky, Philip Skaller, Diarmid Flatley, Samara Rice, and Frank S. Li.

Recognized as a leader among her peers, Mariya currently serves as the Vice Chairperson of the SF Conservatory Student Council. At UC San Diego, she was the recipient of the Bertram Turetzky Award for exceptional participation within the music department and community by an undergraduate performer, as well as a founding member of the Treble Singers and the founding Artistic Director of Undergrads for Opera. Previously, she held the prestigious role of Chorissima Section Leader in the Grammy-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus, with which she toured nationally and internationally and performed with the San Francisco Symphony.

Mariya is currently a postgraduate student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she earned her Master’s in 2015. She earned her Bachelor’s in three years, magna cum laude, at UC San Diego, where she studied with Philip Larson.