Erin Morley

In the 2025–26 season, Erin Morley makes her anticipated role debut as Marie in Laurent Pelly’s La fille du régiment and as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, both at the Metropolitan Opera. She also returns to the Wiener Staatsoper as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos and to Opernhaus Zürich as Zdenka in Arabella. On the concert platform, to mark the long-awaited release of Morley and Lawrence Brownlee’s new duo album Golden Era, they will embark on a recital tour in celebration. They will present the in-demand recital at venues including DC Vocal Arts, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin at the Konzerthaus, New York’s 92nd Street Y, Opera Carolina, and the Newport Classical Music Festival, among others. Also on the concert platform, she appears in a gala concert at Carnegie’s Weill Hall with the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Orchestra; gives a solo recital at Dallas Opera; performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in Boston; and joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as soprano soloist in Poulenc’s Gloria.

Last season saw Morley return to the Metropolitan Opera with a double appearance: as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann and as Gilda in Rigoletto. Further highlights include her return to the Arena di Verona as the Soprano Soloist in Carmina Burana and as Cunegonde in concert performances of Candide at the Semperoper Dresden. Elsewhere on the concert platform, Morley joined Maestro Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Berlin for a tour to Berlin and Vienna as soloist in a program of Strauss orchestral songs, as well as appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra. In recital, she presented Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with Huw Montague Rendall and Malcolm Martineau at London’s Wigmore Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw; and performed her acclaimed “Rose in Bloom” program at Park Avenue Armory, Yale School of Music, Friends of Chamber Music, and the BRAVO! Series at Brigham Young University.

Recent operatic highlights include company debuts at The Royal Ballet and Opera as Gilda (Rigoletto) and at Teatro La Fenice in Venice as Zerbinetta in a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos; Pamina in a new production of Die Zauberflöte; the title role in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice; Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier; and Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, all at the Metropolitan Opera. She also made her Teatro alla Scala debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos; performed Gilda in a new production of Rigoletto; Tytania in a new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Zerbinetta and Sophie at the Wiener Staatsoper; Norina in Don Pasquale and Zerbinetta at the Glyndebourne Festival; a critically acclaimed debut as Lakmé with Washington Concert Opera; Gilda at Staatsoper Berlin; Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Sophie at Opéra de Paris; Fiakermilli in Arabella and Gilda at Bayerische Staatsoper; Lucia di Lammermoor in Nancy; and Tytania, Roxana in Król Roger, Mme Silberklang in Der Schauspieldirektor, and the title role in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale, all at Santa Fe Opera. Cunegonde in Candide is another signature role, performed with LA Opera under James Conlon alongside Kelsey Grammer and Christine Ebersole; with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Alek Shrader, Bradley Cooper, and Carey Mulligan; and at the Carnegie Hall Centenary with John Lithgow.

Equally at home on the concert platform, recent successes include her debut at the Arena di Verona in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Morgana in Alcina with Les Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski at Teatro alla Scala, marking the release of a new recording on Pentatone; soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Orchestre de Paris under Andrés Orozco-Estrada; a gala concert with Washington Concert Opera; Poulenc’s Gloria with the Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Juraj Valčuha; Brahms’s Requiem with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall conducted by Xian Zhang; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti; Carmina Burana with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival conducted by Andris Nelsons; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor for the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center with Louis Langrée; a tour with Harry Bicket and The English Concert; performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Met Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall; and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorenzo Viotti at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna’s Musikverein. Recitals in Berkeley and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, marked the release of her solo recital album Rose in Bloom. Morley also appeared in the famed televised New Year’s Eve concerts with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann, performing Princess Mi in Lehár’s Das Land des Lächelns. She regularly performs with leading orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. A dedicated recitalist, Morley’s appearances include collaborations with pianists Vlad Iftinca, Ken Noda, Gerald Martin Moore, and Malcolm Martineau.

Morley’s debut recital disc with Gerald Martin Moore, Rose in Bloom, released in 2024, has received critical acclaim worldwide, praised as the “crystalline debut of a new high coloratura star.” Her many recordings include Morgana in a complete recording of Handel’s Alcina for the Pentatone label; Eurydice in the Met’s GRAMMY-nominated recording of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice; Princesse Isabelle in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable with Opéra National de Bordeaux for Palazzetto Bru Zane; Sister Constance in the Met’s GRAMMY-nominated Les Dialogues des Carmélites; Sophie in the Met’s GRAMMY-nominated Der Rosenkavalier on DVD/Blu-ray for Decca; Mater Gloriosa in the LA Phil’s GRAMMY-winning Mahler Symphony No. 8 with Gustavo Dudamel for Deutsche Grammophon; Princess Mi in the Staatskapelle Dresden’s Das Land des Lächelns with Christian Thielemann for Unitel; Sandrina in La finta giardiniera with Emmanuelle Haïm in Opéra de Lille’s production for Erato; Woglinde in Götterdämmerung in the Metropolitan Opera’s GRAMMY-winning Lepage Ring Cycle for Deutsche Grammophon; Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots from Bard SummerScape with the American Symphony Orchestra; Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3 “Espansiva” with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic for Da Capo Records; and Sylvie in Gounod’s opéra-comique La Colombe with Sir Mark Elder and The Hallé Orchestra for the Opera Rara label.

Morley spent her early years studying violin and piano, frequently collaborating with her mother, violinist Elizabeth Palmer. An undergraduate of the Eastman School of Music, she went on to earn her Master of Music degree in voice from The Juilliard School and her Artist Diploma from the Juilliard Opera Center, where she received the Florence & Paul DeRosa Prize. Morley also trained at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, the Ravinia Festival Steans Institute, and the Wolf Trap Opera Company as a Filene Young Artist. She won First Prize in the Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition in 2002 and First Place in the Licia Albanese–Puccini Foundation Competition in 2006. She also received the Richard Tucker Career Grant in 2013, the Beverly Sills Award in 2021, the Opera News Award in 2023, the Eastman School of Music Centennial Award in 2023, and was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2024.