Sophia Maekawa

Ryan Opera Center Ensemble

The second-year Ryan Opera Center mezzo-soprano from Kyoto, Japan, was a 2024 Renée Fleming Artist at the Aspen Music Festival, performing Cherubino/Le nozze di Figaro, a 2022 Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist, understudying Rosina/Il barbiere di Siviglia and Comrade Chin and Shu Fang/M. Butterfly, and a 2021 Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She recently received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. While there, she performed in Ariodante (title role), Albert Herring, and L’enfant et les sortilèges. Other roles in her repertoire include Hermia/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Annio/La clemenza di Tito, Mercédès/Carmen, Second Woman/Dido and Aeneas, and Mrs. Nolan/The Medium. Concert appearances include the Wichita Symphony and Curtis Symphony Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Recipient of a 2024 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award, Maekawa was selected to participate in the 2024 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition. Previously, she was a finalist in the 2022 Opera Grand Rapids Competition and a semi-finalist in the 2021 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition. She recently won the 2025 Lynne Harvey Foundation Award by the Musicians Club of Women. In the summer of 2025, she will perform at Wolf Trap Opera as a 2025 Filene Artist.

Sophia Maekawa is sponsored by Lead Sponsors Mark and Gale Kozloff and cosponsors David & Janet Fox and Richard W. Shepro & Lindsay E. Roberts.