Biography

Acclaimed for her powerful lyric voice, her intensity onstage, and her well-honed vocal technique, Kristin Vogel has been honored in multiple international competitions and is sought for roles that require dramatic passion and sensitive musicality. Originally from Texas, Ms. Vogel has enjoyed traveling as a musician and meeting wonderful people all over the world. Now residing in the Seattle area, Ms. Vogel enjoys frequent engagements with companies in the Pacific Northwest in addition to maintaining her international performing schedule. Highlights for this season include her first full Tosca, recitals at Edmonds' Cascadia Art Museum, soloing with Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, and joining the Seattle chapter of Opera On Tap for some high-quality fun. Recent local performances include her debut with Symphony Tacoma as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana with Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, operetta and classic holiday tunes as the featured soloist on the Cascade Symphony holiday concert, and Mimì with Tacoma Opera. Ms. Vogel also recently sang Liù with Knoxville Opera in their touring production of Turandot and joined the Utah Festival Opera as the title role in Madama Butterfly and the Soprano Soloist in their performance of Verdi’s Requiem. Other notable performances include Nedda in I Pagliacci with St. Petersburg Opera in Florida, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Asheville Lyric Opera, Marguerite in Faust with Boheme Opera New Jersey, and many Mozart heroines in a series of “3 Divas” concerts with Northwest Sinfonietta in Seattle, Tacoma, and Puyallup.  

Ms. Vogel has a personal goal to sing all of Puccini's heroines.

Early in life Ms. Vogel showed promise as a versatile performer, studying piano and ballet in addition to singing in the Houston Children’s Choir and Glen Ellen Children’s Chorus (Chicago area). She went on to receive music degrees from the University of Southern California (BM), studying voice with Elizabeth Hynes, and from Manhattan School of Music (MM), where she studied under some of the nation's top music professionals, including the renowned vocal technician Joan Caplan, her primary voice teacher. Kristin's doctoral studies at the University of Washington culminated in a dissertation on Schubert's little-known opera Fierrabras, with additional specializations in song literature written on the poems of Emily Dickinson and the role of the body and breathing in vocal technique, and recitals focusing on song literature of the 1890s and Aaron Copland, among others. 

​Ms. Vogel has grown through intensive apprentice programs and study abroad, in addition to her academic education. She has performed with high-caliber young artist programs at companies including Des Moines Metro Opera, Utah Festival Opera, and the Natchez Festival of Music, where she won the Blackburn-Killelea Award for Most Outstanding Female Young Artist. After being featured in multiple concerts, including a special Wagner birthday celebration, Ms. Vogel won 4th place in the Meistersinger Competition at the American Institute of Music (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. Other outstanding honors include the prize for Acting and Interpretation at the International Competition "Cappuccilli - Patané - Respighi” in Alessandria, Italy, and second place in the Michael Ballam Concorso Lirico International Opera Competition.

As a young professional, Ms. Vogel debuted as Donna Anna with Asheville Lyric Opera in Don Giovanni in 2014. Other notable performances include Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, and Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Boheme Opera New Jersey, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Jenny Lind in a one-woman show at the Natchez Festival of Music. Also active on the concert stage, Ms. Vogel sang the Una Poenitentium/Gretchen solos in Mahler's 8th Symphony with Helena Symphony in Montana and Aaron Copland’s 8 Poems of Emily Dickinson with the Seattle Chamber Orchestra. During her Doctoral studies, she regularly joined Seattle’s “Inverted Space” modern ensemble, and the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra, where she sang the soprano solos in Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Mahler's 2nd Symphony.

As an artist, Ms. Vogel is known for her musicality, her work ethic, and her congeniality. She believes in making the timeless messages of classic operas resonate with modern audiences through musical and dramatic honesty, and is committed to the advancement of contemporary works. From Grand Opera to Operetta, Musical Theater, and non-tonal pieces, Ms. Vogel exhibits a versatility and a willingness to try anything that stems from a true love of music and singing. 

Ms. Vogel currently lives in the Seattle area and maintains a family residence in New York City. She began a lifelong connection to Vienna in 2014 when she resided there for several months through a dissertation-writing fellowship. Kristin is constantly working on and exploring new repertoire, as well as polishing current roles.