“Kristin Gornstein’s portrayal of Piramo was masterful. She sang the difficult role with a truly flawless lyric mezzo, finding opportunities to show both the character’s humor and heartbreak in a melismatic turn or with a glance.”
Praised as “a fine actress with a deep, spacious sound” [Parterre], American mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein brings her “rich-voiced mezzo-soprano” and “lines of an uncannily silky legato” [New York Times] to her work, ranging from the traditional to the edgy and imaginative. She was lauded for her recent portrayal of Piramo in Johan Hasse’s baroque gem Piramo e Tisbe with The Little Opera Theatre of New York, with Opera News calling her performance, “...masterful. She sang the difficult role with a truly flawless lyric mezzo”. In October 2022 she enjoyed her Lincoln Center debut in the role of Wang Sheng in the China Now Music Festival’s production of Painted Skin, and in spring of 2023 she sang the title role in Dido and Aeneas with Opera Fort Collins.
In previous seasons she has been lauded for her portrayal of Ramiro in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera in a co-production by On Site Opera and Atlanta Opera, a role she reprised in 2018 at Caramoor. She performed in the ensemble of Michael Gordon and Deborah Artman’s groundbreaking opera Acquanetta, both in the 2018 world premiere at the Prototype Festival, and in its reprisal at the Bard Summerscape Festival in 2019. In addition, the past seasons have included several role debuts: Angelina in Rossini’s La cenerentola with Salt Marsh Opera, Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth with Opera Company of Middlebury, and Paul in the world premiere of Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Clark’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June with Indianapolis Opera. The 2020-2021 season included a return to the Little Opera Theatre of New York for a digital release of scenes from Mozart’s Il Re Pastore.
Photo by Russ Rowland
Kristin made her Carnegie Hall debut in the Spring of 2018, winning third place in the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Competition. She has joined Sacred Music in a Sacred Space as alto soloist for both Vivaldi’s Gloria and a program of Domenico Zipoli’s work titled Zipoli and his World, NY Wind Symphony for de Meij’s 4th Symphony, Sinfonietta Riverdale as Bessie in Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel, and the American University of Beirut as soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. Kristin toured with Mark Morris Dance Company’s acclaimed production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas as an ensemble member, appeared at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic for Honegger’s Jean D’Arc au Bûcher, and has made numerous appearances in recital at Caramoor. Kristin is also a regular soloist with the Brooklyn Art Song Society.
Photo by Robert Altman
In 2021, Kristin established the Vertex Duo with pianist Jeremy Chan, with whom she has enjoyed an active performing relationship since 2015. After over five years of performing together as a duo, they recently released their first studio collaboration, EP Still, in 2020. They are currently working on an album of contemporary song due to be released in 2023.
A frequent performer on the New York opera scene, Ms. Gornstein has appeared as Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Loft Opera, as Mrs. Slender in Salieri’s Falstaff with Dell’Arte Opera, as Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte with Utopia Opera, and as Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Opera MODO. Never straying too far from the edgy and imaginative, she has appeared often with Heartbeat Opera; as Xantippe in Daphnis and Chloé, as featured soloist in Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, and as part of the first fully staged opera pastiche ever performed on Manhattan’s High Line. In 2019 she debuted the role of Julie in Pulitzer Prize-nominated composer Alex Weiser’s opera State of the Jews, and has worked with Alex and librettist Ben Kaplan on several workshops of the same opera, as well as their latest project, The Great Yiddish Dictionary.
Ms. Gornstein was a 2015 Fellow with the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was featured as soloist in Mackey’s Madrigal, and Bach’s Cantata 155 and as Federico Lorca in excerpts from Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar. She sang performances of Carmen in Bizet/Brook’s La Tragédie de Carmen, Annina in Verdi’s La traviata and Pitti-Sing in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado as a young artist with Indianapolis Opera, and she was also an apprentice with Bel Canto at Caramoor and New Jersey Opera. In 2012, she attended the Opera College of Stockholm, through which she performed at the Royal Opera (Stockholm), premiering as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Carl Unander-Scharin’s Opera Mecatronica, and reprising that performance in Operadagen Rotterdam Festival’s production of Distant Voices. She holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Colorado, where she sang the roles of Vixen Sharp-Ears in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Maria in Bernstein’s West Side Story, and Kitty Hart in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and was soloist in Crumb’s Apparition. Kristin attended Butler University, earning a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance. She credits her love of opera to the unique opportunity given to Butler voice students; singing in the professional chorus with Indianapolis Opera. In fact she made her professional solo debut there, singing the small role of Kaetchen in Massenet’s Werther. It is an experience she would recommend to any singer looking to learn about all that goes into making opera happen.