About Christina

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Mezzo-Soprano Christina Swanson is an emerging artist based in New York City.  Swanson recently 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 Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice (NYU Opera Theater), Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffman (Hudson River Opera) 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).  Chorus work includes Turandot and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, she will make her debut with Lakeland Symphony in Lakeland, FLA, covering Lola and singing in the chorus of Cavalleria Rusticana. In March 2023, she will perform the role of Idamante in Idomeneo with NYU Opera Theater and in April 2023, she will sing the solo in Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the NYU Orchestra.

Swanson is well-versed in the realms of chamber music and new music. 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, receiving coachings from the composer himself. Swanson recently premiered "Under the Gold," a cycle by promising composer Harriet Steinke.

No stranger to sacred music and choral repertoire, Swanson has a wealth of experience as a staff choral singer with Christ Church Detroit and St. Mark's Episcopal in Mt. Kisco, NY. She was formerly the staff cantor at Christ the King Catholic Church in Yonkers, NY. This season, Swanson will join the roster of the New York Philharmonic Chorus. 

Swanson recently 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. 

Swanson's love for curating new works has led her into a career that includes directing and producing. She is the co-founder of Killer Queen Opera, and co-founded the Works in Progress Festival at Detroit's Jam Handy in 2018. 

Swanson received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied under tenor Scott Piper. She is currently a Masters candidate at New York University in Vocal Performance with an Advanced Pedagogy Certificate, where she is the recipient of a Music Talent Scholarship and works as an Adjunct Voice Instructor at NYU. She studies with Justin Moniz.