Biography
Soprano MEGAN WESTON is recognized for her “remarkable virtuosity and charm” (FINANCIAL TIMES), her “gorgeous lyric soprano” (OPERA MAGAZINE), and “strong and persuasive” acting (THE NEW YORK TIMES). Early in her career, she gained attention as Lisa in La sonnambula with the Caramoor Music Festival and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and as Lightfoot McClendon in the premiere production of Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree with San Diego Opera.
Her 2021-2022 season includes Gershwin concerts in Finland with the Joroinen Festival and the morning show, Savonlinna AAMU. Her performances in NYC include The Music of James Bond at Swing 46, an all French program at the National Arts Club, and a concert for the China Institute and Vital Voices with Athena Music Foundation. She appeared on tour with the Bad Boys of Opera at the Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Meyers and on the EMMA Concert Series at Lewis Auditorium in St. Augustine. She performs in concert with the Minnie Untemeyer Concert Series this summer.
In 2020, she performed The Swallow and Match Girl in Sergio Cervetti's opera Elegy for a Prince with DCINY at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium, appeared at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in a program for Chinese New Year, Ocean City Pops in New Jersey, as well as live-streamed performances for Columbia University. In 2019, she performed Jenny in Stephen Sondheim's Company with Madison Lyric Stage, Frasquita in Carmen with the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, and the premiere of Two Masses by Phillipe Treuille with the Long Island Chorale Society. Her voice can be heard on the Netflix limited series The Queen’s Gambit.
MEGAN WESTON is the co-founder and General Director of Athena Music Foundation, a non-profit organization which serves to introduce and inspire new and diverse audiences with compelling live performances of opera and classical music featuring world-class artists. She has produced and performed in numerous recitals and gala concerts, including the historic Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara and Kosciuszko Foundation, the National Chorale, and the Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra at the Japan Society, NYC, French Consulate in NYC, the Fortune and U.S. Department of State Vital Voices Global Partnership, and National Arts Club, the Pocono Mountains Music Festival, Kamen Brain Tumor Foundation, and WeLink International Film Festival at the United Nations. International tours include concerts for The United Exchange Summit in Dubai, and and a tour of China with performances at Tsinghua University in Beijing and Dom Pedro V Theater in Macau.
Her recordings include Anne in the world premiere of Harold Farberman’s Diamond Street for Hudson Hall and Albany Records. She performed with Academy Award winning actress Olympia Dukakis premiering nine new works by Nico Muhly and others in November 21, 1963: The Day Before at Symphony Space. Her career, spanning over fifty operatic roles, includes Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann and Lapak in The Cunning Little Vixen (Tulsa Opera), Norina in Don Pasquale and Cunegonde in Candide (Lyric Opera San Diego), Constance Bonacieux in the world premiere of Mitchell Bach's Les trois mousquetaires (Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice), Yum-Yum in The Mikado (Festival Ópera en la Calle, Mexico), Tuptim in The King and I (Charlottesville Opera), Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Center City Opera Philadelphia), Despina in Così fan tutte (Utah Opera), Nedda in Pagliacci (Madison Lyric Stage) and Gilda in Rigoletto (Bard Conductors Institute).
MEGAN WESTON has appeared in numerous pops concerts with the Cape Symphony, Orchestra Nova, and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra. She performed songs by Samuel Barber with the Metropolitan Opera Guild at Lincoln Center. A frequent guest artist at Carnegie Hall, MEGAN WESTON made her debut in Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the New England Symphonic Ensemble and MidAmerica. She has performed Copland's Poems of Emily Dickinson and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with San Diego Chamber Orchestra and the Glens Falls Symphony, Verdi Requiem with Bard Conductors Institute and Long Island Choral Society, Carmina Burana with the San Diego Symphony, Messiah with Long Island Choral Society and Orchestra Nova, Brahms' Requiem with Seattle's Cascadian Chorale and toured southern France in programs with the St. Amand de Vergt Festival and Entrée des Artistes Festival ("grande qualité" - SUD-OUEST). She has traveled the world appearing in programs with the National Trust in Bora Bora, in Boltaña, Spain and in Antarctica. MEGAN WESTON sang Haydn's The Creation and Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Long Island Choral Society, and appeared in gala concerts with Opera Orlando, the Cape Symphony, Palm Beach Theater Guild, and New York City Opera.
MEGAN WESTON began her career in the young artist programs of Utah Opera, San Diego Opera, and the Aspen Opera Theater Center. She is the recipient of major awards from such esteemed organizations as the Gerda Lissner International Competition, the Lee Schaenen Foundation Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Western Regional Auditions, the Pavarotti International Competition, Leni Fe Bland Foundation Awards, Joyce Dutka Arts Competition, NATS Competition, and the Loren L. Zachary National Competition. A member of BMI and SAG/AFTRA, her compositions and acting have been featured in television shows and films. A frequent collaborator with contemporary composers, she has premiered works by Carlisle Floyd, Nico Muhly, Myron Fink, Harold Farberman, Arthur Kopit, Ben Moore, and many more.
MEGAN WESTON is a graduate of Columbia University and currently is an instructor of voice and piano at Teachers College.