Erin Wagner, Mezzo-soprano, Naumburg Vocal Award Winner, and Houston Grand Opera Butler Studio Artist is originally from El Paso, TX and is passionate about sharing music which represents modern and diverse perspectives. Erin joined the Houston Grand Opera Butler Studio in 2022 to further her operatic training and to perform in The Wreckers (Jack), Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino cover, Barbarina), Salome (Page), the HGO Butler Studio Scenes Showcase (Mélisande, Béatrice, Miss Jessel, Frau Reich and Larina), and to continue her recital work. Her next season with HGO includes role debuts as Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Blümenmädchen and The Voice from Above (Parsifal), and Sister Berthe (The Sound of Music). Erin is currently a student of Dr. Stephen King.

She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she studied with Darrell Babidge and was a Gluck Community Service Fellow. While at Juilliard she won the 2021 Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital with a recital program exploring the relationship between memory and color alongside her frequent collaborator and fellow duo member, Shawn Chang. Wagner and Chang performed a recital discussing the affliction of women in the 2021 Naumburg Foundation Vocal Competition in which Erin was awarded first place. Consequently, Erin and Shawn made their Carnegie Hall debuts for The Naumburg Foundation in a recital entitled But How Things Change. The program explored the collective and individual experiences brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic with music by Edie Hill, Fauré, Ravel, Errollyn Wallen, Shawn Chang, and Mahler. For this recital Erin commissioned Shawn to set text from her father’s childhood that depicted his life as a mischievous child living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a rare and debilitating bone disorder.

Their next recital for The Naumburg Foundation in November 2023 will include a commission by Errollyn Wallen entitled JOY, a world premiere by Shawn Chang, and excerpts from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Messiaen’s Harawi; the recital centers around the duality and coexistence of joy and hardship. Erin and Shawn received the commission prize from Sparks and Wiry Cries in the 2022 competition, leading to the creation of Us Now, a cycle by Shawn to the poetry of Jacqueline Suskin.

Erin was awarded first prize at the 2022 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, receiving artistic management and guidance from an organization which has represented and guided many important artists including Julia Bullock, Sasha Cooke, and Dawn Upshaw. Erin will make her YCA Recital Debuts at The Kennedy Center and The Kaufman Center in March of 2024.

Erin returned to the Aspen Music Festival as a Renée Fleming Artist in 2023 to sing the role of Idamante under the baton of Robert Spano in Francesca Zambello’s production of Idomeneo featuring Matthew Polenzani in the title role. She also performed orchestrated Lieder of Schubert with Nicholas McGegan, Argento’s From The Diary of Virginia Woolf, and scenes from Les Dialogues des Carmélites (Blanche) and Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist).

She was a member of the 2022 Merola Opera Program where she reprised Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, performed in a scene from Golijov’s Ainadamar, sang in Craig Terry’s A Celebration of American Song, and performed scenes from Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist) and Carmen (Mercédès) in the Grand Finale Concert at the San Francisco Opera House.

While at Merola, Erin won the Schwabacher Recital Debut Auditions, she returned in May 2023 to make her recital debut at San Francisco Opera in a recital program called Everything Must Change: a sequel to her previous recital program that discusses the ways society has failed to progress but affirms the opportunity we have collectively to make change. She shared the music of Franz Schubert, Stefania Turkewich, Viktor Ullmann, Shawn Chang, Radiohead, and Benard Ighner alongside Shawn Chang at the piano.

As a 2021 Renée Fleming Artist at Aspen Music Festival, Erin performed Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Unulfo in Rodelinda, and in scenes from Cosí Fan Tutte (Dorabella), La clemenza di Tito (Annio), and Semele (Ino). She also collaborated with composer, David Clay Mettens, to create The Sustaining Air: a collection of songs based on the words of Larry Eigner who allowed his poetry to reflect his view of the world from the perspective of his wheelchair.

While at Juilliard Erin performed in Brian Zeger’s Songfest both in 2019 and 2021, in The Mother of Us All with the NY Philarmonic at the MET Museum, as Giovanna Seymour in a scene from Anna Bolena, and in Pierre Vallet’s Liederabend. She was awarded 2nd Place in the 2021 Houston Saengerbund Competition and is a recipient of a grant from The Gerda Lissner Foundation 2021 Lieder Competition. She has performed with Steve Blier’s NYFOS at Caramoor in their Tour de France and at the Kaufman Center in Next 9 Under 34, a program exploring artsong by the current generation of living composers. Erin’s undergraduate degree is from The Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. She has previously participated in Carnegie Hall/Renée Fleming’s SongStudio, The Chautauqua Institution, at SongFest as a Colburn Fellow, and at Matthew Rose’s Scuola di Bel Canto.

When she’s not singing Erin likes to rewatch The Twilight Saga, listen to Led Zeppelin and Nina Simone, visit art museums, and spend time with her loved ones!