Esther Maureen Kelly recently had the pleasure of being the soprano soloist in the world premiere of Mason Bates’ “Spring River Flowers by Moonlight” under the baton of Marin Alsop at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). She appeared as the soloist in Singapore’s first public performance of David Fanshawe’s “African Sanctus,” and has performed in many of the foremost concert venues across the United States and Asia; including the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Singapore Esplanade, NCPA Beijing, and Shanghai Grand Theatre. She was fortunate to be a soloist in the historic 50^th anniversary concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra being the first American orchestra to perform in China. This past season, she made her Queen of the Night debut at the Esplanade in VA Singapore’s production of Die Zauberflöte, and was a soloist in the premiere of the Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Lio Kuokman. During the 2021-2022 season, Esther Maureen Kelly made her debut at the Kennedy Center as a soloist for the COAL+ICE Festival and made her Lincoln Center debut as a soloist for the East/West Concert, with the New York City Ballet Orchestra. In January of 2022, she was one of the soloists with the US-China Music Institute’s Sound of Spring Concert, with the Orchestra Now, under the baton of Maestro Jindong Cai.

In recent seasons, she performed in Opera Fayetteville’s production of Glory Denied as Younger Alyce. She was one of the leading sopranos in the world premiere of Ancient Tang Poems from iSING! Suzhou to the World, at the iSING! International Young Artists Festival. A documentary was made for this historic music project and the concert and documentary were televised nationwide in China. While she intended to perform several roles and covers with Opera Saratoga during the 2020 season, due to Covid-19 she instead worked with them remotely via online videos and opera scenes. In recent years, she has sung the role of Maddy in the world premiere of All Things Shall Pass, Diane in Orphée aux enfers, Amore and Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, as well as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte. She has also performed the roles of Alma March in Little Women, Contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Yum Yum in The Mikado. Additionally, she has presented and participated in a number of recitals in the United States and Singapore. While growing up in Singapore in the early 2000s, Kelly sang with the Singapore Lyric Opera in several productions. She attended university in the United States, graduating from The Maryland Opera Studio in the Spring of 2017 with a Master of Music. Young Artist Programs she attended include Opera Saratoga and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.

 

 

Mason Bates’s ‘Spring River Flowers by Moonlight’

"Tian found the perfect singers. Bates describes soprano Esther Maureen Kelly and baritone Valdis Jansons as extraordinary. The singers’ voices and musicality were so compatible with Bates’s vocal writing that he needed to make only a few adjustments to accommodate them."

~ Rick Perdian (OperaWire)

 

"Maureen Kelly's lush soprano soared above the orchestra as she expressed the allure of nature and the yearning for a love far away."

~ Rick Perdian (Seen and Heard International)