About Christina
Mezzo-Soprano Christina Swanson is an emerging artist based in New York City. She floats among the realms of opera, musical theater, and performance art, equally at home producing, directing, and performing.
Equally at home on the operatic and musical theater stages, Swanson recently appeared in a Theatre Row reading of "The Dressmaker's Story," produced by WitzEnd Productions in 2024 and written by Shareen Mitchell. In 2022 Swanson worked as a Festival Artist with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater. She covered the Second Lady in The Magic Flute, Ma Moss in The Tenderland, as well as singing in the Ensemble of both The Tenderland and Carmen. In addition, she was featured as a soloist in Tabernacle concerts and cabarets hosted by the festival. A multi-talented performer, she also served as the Dance Captain for The Tenderland.
Recent performance credits include Cousin in Madama Butterfly (Lakeland Symphony Orchestra), Idamante in Idomeneo and Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice (NYU Opera Theater), Lola (Cover) in Cavalleria Rusticana (Lakeland Symphony Orchestra), Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffman and Siebel in Faust (Hudson River Opera), Arnalta in L'incoronazione di Poppea (Killer Queen Opera), Venus in Orpheus in the Underworld (Opera MODO), and Satirino in La Calisto (Red River Lyric Opera Festival).
An accomplished chorister, Swanson is on the roster of the NY Philharmonic Chorus and the Choral Chameleon Ensemble in NYC. Past projects include performing in the chorus of Turandot and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Swanson is steadily developing her concert, cabaret, and chamber repertoire. In November 2023, she made her debut with the Oratorio Society of New Jersey as the Mezzo Soloist in Handel's Judas Maccabeus. In collaboration with pianist Sasha Bersovsky, she performed a recital featuring repertoire from Poulenc to Bolcom at Surrey Arts & Events (Surrey, Maine) and Songs and Dances of Antonin Dvořák at St. Cyril's Church in the East Village. Swanson performed the solo in Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the NYU Orchestra. She was chosen to perform in NYU Steinhardt's "Tango Project" where she performed Leonardo Suarez Paz's original compositions and arrangements of Astor Piazzolla's, scored for violin, cello, piano, and voice, and was coached by the composer himself. Swanson recently premiered "Under the Gold," a cycle by promising composer Harriet Steinke.
Swanson won First Place in the 2022 NATS-NYC Competition, Adult Classical Division. She placed Second in the NATS-NYC Adult Musical Theater competition. Swanson was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Music International Grand Prix Competition, where she performed at Merkin Hall in NYC. She won Second Place in the 2021 NATS NYC competition.
She is the co-founder of Killer Queen Opera, an emerging opera company that has received support from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Alliance of Resident Theaters. With Killer Queen Opera, she frequently produces chamber operas and cabarets throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 2022, she choreographed the new musical, Triangle Cruise, premiering at storied NYC venue, The Cutting Room. In. 2018, she co-founded the Works in Progress Festival at Detroit's Jam Handy. In September, she will premiered an original performance art piece "Where my grandmothers live in my body," at the Spark Theater Festival in NYC, in collaboration with Karina Parker and Killer Queen Opera.
Swanson received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan. She received her M.M. from New York University in Vocal Performance with an Advanced Pedagogy Certificate, where she was the recipient of a Music Talent Scholarship, and worked as an Adjunct Voice Instructor. She is a passionate educator and teaches Vocal Arts at City School of the Arts as well as maintaining a private voice studio, https://www.themusiccolab.com/.