Versatile singing actress Michelle Trainor is known for her “powerful, penetrating soprano” (Wall Street Journal) and as both a “comic genius” and “vocal treat” (Boston Globe). An alumna of the Boston Lyric Opera’s Emerging Artist initiative, Trainor has become “a favorite of the Boston opera scene,” (Schmopera) in productions of contemporary opera including The Handmaid’s Tale, Burke & Hare and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. In standard rep like Macbeth, Barber of Seville and Threepenny Opera, she was described by Berkshire Fine Arts as “an ebullient comedian” who steals “every scene she is in with her pure joie de vivre.”
This season, Ms. Trainor reprises the role of Aksinya in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the George Enescu International Festival in Budapest under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero, a role she has performed in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at both Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall. She also returns to Boston Lyric Opera for their gala as Mercedes in excerpts from Carmen and Rossweise in excerpts from The Ride of The Valkyries alongside Christine Goerke. In the spring, Ms. Trainor reprises her signature role of Berta in The Barber of Seville with the Helena Symphony.
As a concert soloist, Trainor has performed in Mozart’s Requiem, Mass in C Minor, Solemn Vespers and Missa Brevis in B Flat, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis, Nicholas White’s Magnificat, and Vaughn Williams’ A Sea Symphony. Trainor made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with Canterbury Choral Society. She has performed at Boston’s First Night and has sung works with the Composers in Red Sneakers where she was described as having a “huge yet flexible sound and excellent diction” by the New Music Connoisseur. She joined the stage with Boston Ballet in their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the soprano soloist and performed Isolde’s Liebestod from Brookline Symphony Orchestra from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.
Among her accolades, Trainer counts the Boston Lyric Opera’s Shrestinian Award for Excellence and St. Botolph Club Grant, along with first place wins in the New Jersey Verismo Opera Competition, New England Regional NATSAA and the Peter Elvins’ Competition. She has been a NATSAA National Finalist and winner of the Berton Coffin Award, and was a finalist in the Concorso Lirico di Fedora Barbieri, Career Bridges Grant Award as well as the Rochester Oratorio Society Vocal Competition.
