ERIN ALFORD
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“Erin Alford as La Ciesca brought beauty of timbre and vibrant stage personality to the devious Donati relative.”
Lawrence Budmen,
South Florida Classical Review
ABOUT
BIOGRAPHY
First Prize Winner of the 2024 Pasadena Vocal Competition, mezzo-soprano Erin Alford is quickly making a name for herself on the operatic, concert and recital stage. In the 2024-25 season, Erin will sing Effie and cover Augusta in The Ballad of Baby Doe with The Opera Buffs, portray Agata in the rarely-performed bel canto comedy Don Bucefalo with Pacific Opera Project, return to Pensacola Opera to make her much-awaited role debut as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, and cover Yvonne/Naomi in Sunday in the Park with George at The Glimmerglass Festival. Last season, Erin appeared as Berenice in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro with Opera Southwest, in performances of LA Opera Connects outreach production Orpheus, in recital Words of Women in American Song with The Ebell of Los Angeles, as Alto Soloist in Handel's Messiah with Pacific Opera Project and First Church Miami, and in concert with Palm Springs Opera Guild. In the 2022-2023 season, Erin joined Florida Grand Opera as a Studio Artist, where she was seen as Fidalma in El matrimonio secreto, La Ciesca in a double-bill of Gianni Schicchi & Buoso’s Ghost, and covered Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Erin’s performance of Fidalma was lauded as “statuesque and spunky,” and she was praised for her “powerful mezzo” and for “exhibit[ing] the best sense of classical style in the cast” (South Florida Classical Review).
During the 2021-2022 season, Erin made role and house debuts as Second Woman and Dido cover in Dido and Aeneas with Opera San José, returned to Pensacola Opera as Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and joined Opera Santa Barbara as a Chrisman Studio Artist where she covered Hannah After in As One and appeared in recital of The Starry Night with American composer Jake Heggie. As a 2020-2021 Pensacola Opera Artist in Residence, Erin performed Mercédès, and covered the title role, in Carmen, Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore, the title role in the education production Cinderella, and Giannetta in an English adaptation of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, charmingly retitled Heartbreak High.
In the competition circuit, Erin recently won First Prize at the 2024 Pasadena Vocal Competition and Fifth Prize at the 2024 Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition. In recent seasons, Erin has been named a 2022 Tennessee District Winner by the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, awarded a 2021 Encouragement Award by the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Kansas City District, selected as a 2021 semi-finalist in the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition, received the 2020 Bonnie Bell Encouragement Award from the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, received the 2019 Audience Choice Award and an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, San Diego District, and won first prize in the 2019 NATS-LA Gwendolyn Roberts Young Artist Auditions.
Other notable roles performed include Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Teatro Nuovo; Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking, prepared with artistic oversight from composer Jake Heggie, in the South Florida premiere with Miami Music Festival; the title role in Chérubin and Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites with CSULB Opera, Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor cover in The Crucible again with MMF, and Laura in Iolanta with Russian Opera Workshop (RIP dear Ghenady Meirson).
A native of Long Beach, CA, Erin makes frequent appearances with LA Opera Connects, including singing in community recitals, performing in touring productions to local high schools as Nurse/A&R Rep in Orpheus and Angela in The Wreck of the Miranda (world premiere), and stepping in to sing Alto in the SATB Quartet of the community opera Moses (world premiere). Erin has also sung on the LA Opera mainstage as Chorus Soloist in Aucoin's Eurydice (world premiere).
A passionate interpreter of art song, Erin enjoys programming and sharing intimate recitals. Recent recitals include Words of Women in American Song featuring all American songs with text by women (including Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf and songs by Bernstein, Copland, and Margaret Bonds), and a recital of all women composers and poets juxtaposed against Schumann’s famous Frauenliebe und Leben, both with collaborator Dr. Clara Cheng Stosch. Equally comfortable on the concert stage, Erin has sung Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the CSULB Symphony as winner of the 2017 Vocal Concerto Competition, as well as performed as Alto Soloist in Handel's Messiah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Bach’s Magnificat and Bach’s B Minor Mass.
Erin has graduated from young artist programs at Florida Grand Opera, Pensacola Opera, and Opera Santa Barbara. She received her Master of Music in Opera Performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB, and her Bachelor of Arts in Music from UC Berkeley.
