Soprano, MaKayla McDonald (she/her), is an active performer of new works, ensemble pieces, and opera. This season, she’ll join Tero Saarinen Company and Boston Camerata on international stages for Borrowed Light, a work that captures the ritualistic essence of dance and the profound strength of community. Later this season, MaKayla will collaborate with City Lyric Opera for Jeremy Beck’s, Black Water, a monodrama with dance. Additional season highlights include a concert of music by North American Indigenous composers with Voices of the New Ensemble, and a continued residency with American Opera Project.

Recent engagements include the Lift Ev’ry Voice artist residency with Cedar Rapids Opera, a residency designed to uplift community youth through music; continued faculty recitals at the Borough of Manhattan Community College; the premiere of Fizz & Ginger, a jazz opera, by Whitney George and Bea Goodwin; Mozart’s Requiem with Musica Sacra and the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall; keynote speaker for the Cedar Valley Arts Summit.

As a lyric soprano, MaKayla has found success as an Encouragement Award Winner in the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition and as a Semi-Finalist in the Orpheus Vocal Competition. MaKayla was in the 2020-2021 Opera in the 21st Century cohort with Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; a performance-based, collaborative training experience for emerging opera professionals that challenges the conventions of opera performance, production, and design.

A native Iowan, MaKayla received both her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Vocal Performance, from the University of Northern Iowa. Currently, she studies with Michael Chioldi.

 ____

MaKayla currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and is an Adjunct Lecturer for the Borough of Manhattan Community College Music and Art Department (BMCC-CUNY).  Offstage, you can usually find MaKayla at trivia night confidently answering all the pop culture questions, reading a book, or enjoying the foods of New York City.