Laura Strickling, Soprano

Biography

Laura Strickling is quickly earning critical acclaim in her promising young career. The New York Times praised her “flexible voice, crystalline diction and warm presence,” while the Baltimore Sun admired her “strong dramatic talents,” and the Berkshire Eagle lauded “her strong and well-focused vocal instrument.”

A devoted recitalist, Ms. Strickling has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Galapagos Art Space, Trinity Church on Wall Street, the Philadelphia Lieder Society, Dankhaus Chicago, the American University of Afghanistan, and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Her recent recital at the Chicago Schubertiade was broadcast internationally by classical radio station 98.7 WFMT. She has appeared in recital with award-winning composers Tom Cipullo and John Musto. In January, she performed in The Song Continues…with Marilyn Horne, Weill Music Institute’s 2012 Professional Training Program at Carnegie Hall.
 
Ms. Strickling received the 2011 Thomas Greene Music Prize professional grant, and was a recipient of the Marc and Eva Stern Fellowship at SongFest in 2011 and 2012. Her recent competition honors include the Schubert Club Competition, Harold Haugh Light Opera Competition, American Prize for Opera Performance, the Vocal Arts Society Art Song Discovery Competition, the Gretchen Hood Memorial Competition, the Russell C. Wonderlic Competition, the Baltimore Music Club Competition, and the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition. She earned second prize in the Liederkranz Art Song Competition, third prize in the NATS Artist Award competition, and was a finalist in the Washington International Competition and the Joy in Singing competition.
 
Concert engagements include Mozart by Candlelight with Annapolis Opera, Requiem (Mozart), Lord Nelson Mass (Haydn), Mass in C (Beethoven), the U.S. premiere of selections from Canti di Pesoa (Riccardi), Requiem (Brahms) at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, Messiah (Handel) at Schlessinger Hall with the New Dominion Chorale and at the Williamsburg United Methodist Church in Historic Williamsburg, Virginia, and her Kennedy Center debut in Messiah (Handel).
 
An alumna of the Berkshire Opera Company Resident Artist Program, Ms. Strickling’s operatic roles include Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Mirena (Mirena e Floro), Mimi (La Boheme), Dinorah (Dinorah), Elvira (L’Italiana in Algeri), Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore), Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Micaëla (Carmen), and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). 

A Chicago native, Ms. Strickling studied at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (Master of Music in Voice), where she was a Peabody Merit Scholarship recipient, and the Moody Bible Institute (Bachelor of Music in Sacred Music). She studies with Elizabeth Daniels and frequently collaborates with critically acclaimed pianist Joy Schreier. An avid traveler, she recently returned from living in Fez, Morocco, where she studied classical Arabic.