About

Hailed by the Financial Times for her ‘easy flexibility, arresting poise and enveloping warmth,” mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall sings leading roles as a member of Oper Frankfurt’s prestigious ensemble and appears regularly as a guest artist on many of the world’s finest stages.

Highlights of the 2023-24 season for Cecelia include three title role debuts in new productions: La Cenerentola for Boston Lyric Opera, Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba for Oper Frankfurt. and Carmen for Austin Opera. On the concert stage, she sings Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade with Ensemble Matheus in London, tours Europe with the Orchestra of the 18th C as the Alto Soloist in Bach’s St John Passion, and appears in a series of concerts at New York’s Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Jaap van Zweden.

Highlights of the 2022-23 season included title role Xerxes for the Komische Oper Berlin, a performance of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New York’s Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Lukes’s conducted by Harry Bicket with narration by David Hyde Pierce, title role Ariodante for The Israeli Opera cond. Jean Christophe Spinosi and leading roles at Oper Frankurt including Charlotte Werther, Irene Tamerlano, Second Lady Die Zauberflöte and Iseut aux blanches mains Le vin herbé.

In the 2021-2022 season, Cecelia made an acclaimed debut as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in a new production directed by James Darrah and conducted by Christopher Allen at Opera Omaha. Kevin Hanrahan of Opera News wrote, “It was Cecelia Hall who outshone them all as Romeo. The dynamic flexibility with which Hall sang, shaping every phrase with dramatic intention, was a delightful example of bel canto singing.” Other highlights included a concert performance of Second Lady Die Zauberflöte at the Tchaikowsky Concert Hall with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Christopher Moulds, her debut at Opera Holland Park in the title role of Handel’s Xerxes, as well as Dorabella Così fan tutte and Dido Dido and Aeneas at Oper Frankfurt.

As was true across our industry, the period of 2020-2021 was marked by many cancellations for Cecelia, including returns to the Canadian Opera Company and Carnegie Hall, debuts in Québec and Detroit, and her role debut as Octavian Der Rosenkavalier in Frankfurt. Happily, Oper Frankfurt still saw her debut the title role Xerxes, conducted by Roland Böer, and reprise Cherubino in Caterina Panti Liberovici’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro with Finnigan Downie Dear. Further performances included Mozart’s Requiem with Thomas Guggeis and a Love Songs Livestream recital with Samuel Levine and Anne Larlee.

Previous seasons in Frankfurt have included several notable debuts for Cecelia: Idamante Idomeneo, Irene in R.B. Schlather’s production of Tamerlano, cond. Karsten Januschke, Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Marguerite La Damnation de Faust, Dido, and Fulvia in Gluck’s Ezio. Frankfurt audiences have also seen her as Mercèdes Carmen, Zerlina Don Giovanni, Zweite Dame Die Zauberflöte, Dorabella Così fan tutte, Pippo La Gazza Ladra as well as Dimitri Fedora. Other European highlights include Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro at the Bayerische Staatsoper with Ivor Bolton and Zaida Il Turco in Italia in Aix-en-Provence, led by Christoper Alden and Marc Minkowski. Cecelia made her Russian debut singing Komponist Ariadne auf Naxos with Vladimir Jurowski and the Moscow Philharmonic Society.

Highlights of Cecelia’s work in North America include Don Ramiro La Finta Giardiniera at the Santa Fe Opera, conducted by Harry Bicket and directed by Tim Albery; Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Canadian Opera Company, cond. Rory MacDonald, dir. Joan Font; Sesto La Clemenza di Tito with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, cond. Stephen Lord, dir. Stephen Lawless; and the Page Salome with the Philadelphia Orchestra, cond. Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Cecelia has sung multiple times with Opera Philadelphia: as Ruby Thewes in the east coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain, cond. Corrado Rovaris, dir. Leonard Foglia; and as Clorinda and Sorrel in War Stories (a double bill of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Beecher’s I Have No Stories To Tell You), cond. Gary Wedow, dir. Robin Guarino as part of the inaugural Festival 017, for which she was featured on the cover of Opera News. Cecelia sang Wellgunde and Rossweisse in Seattle Opera’s Ring des Nibelungen, cond. Asher Fisch, dir. Stephen Wadsworth, which was recorded and released commercially.

An alumna of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Cecelia received much critical acclaim for her turn there as Annio La Clemenza di Tito with Sir Andrew Davis and David McVicar and for her performance in the title-role of Handel’s Teseo at Chicago Opera Theater. As an alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has appeared at the Met as Javotte Manon and as Second Priestess Iphigénie en Tauride.

A noted recitalist, Cecelia has appeared several times at Carnegie Hall, in a Spotlight recital and gala with the Marilyn Horne Foundation and with Carnegie’s own Ensemble ACJW. In Frankfurt, she gave a much-lauded Liederabend with Hilko Dumno. As a Samling Artist, she sang in recital with Sir Thomas Allen and Malcolm Martineau at Wigmore Hall. Cecelia made her Mostly Mozart debut as the mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem with Maestro Louis Langrée and appeared with the Bay Atlantic Symphony singing Les Nuits d’Eté.

An alumna of The Juilliard School and DePaul University, Cecelia is a recipient of a 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, a 2012 Brian Dickie Outstanding Young Singer Award, the 2013 Lynne Harvey Foundation Scholarship from the Musician’s Club of Women, and Third Prize from the 2013 Gerda Lissner Foundation.

Photo Credit: Dario Acosta

Updated July 2023. This biography is valid for use until August 2024. For updated versions, please contact mary@wehmeyermanagement.com. This biography should not be edited without permission from Camilla Wehmeyer Management.