Hailed as “a lyric soprano of ravishing quality” by the Boston Globe, soprano Laura Choi Stuart is at home on the operatic, concert, and recital stage.  This season she performs the roles of Gilda in Rigoletto with Commonwealth Opera, Frasquita in Carmen with Annapolis Opera, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Opera North as well as appearing in Haydn’s Nelson Mass at Dartmouth College.  With pianist Tanya Blaich, she won the David Adams Art Song Competition, and performed a series of recitals of songs by Strauss, Debussy, and Libby Larsen. Laura is also winner of the Vocal Arts Society’s Art Song Discovery Series, under whose auspices she will perform recitals during the 2008-09 season.  In 2007, she appeared with the Lake George Opera as Musetta in La Boheme and created the title role of Pocahontas for the Virginia Arts Festival in a new opera by Linda Tutas Haugen, as well as performing in concert and educational appearances as a member of Virginia Opera’s Spectrum Young Artist Program.  In 2006 she was a member of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers and covered the role of Micaela in Carmen.  Laura made her professional debut in 2004 with Boston Lyric Opera where she performed the roles of Elvira in L’Italiana in Algeri and The Rose in Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, as well as receiving the 2005 Stephen Shrestinian Award for Excellence from that company.  Other appearances in Boston have included Anna Gomez in Opera Boston’s The Consul, Miriam in Intermezzo Chamber Opera’s The Scarf, and, while completing her Master of Music degree at The New England Conservatory, the roles of Pamina in The Magic Flute, Calisto in La Calisto, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and Lady Billows in Albert Herring.  Laura has performed frequently with the Berkshire Opera, both as a member of the Resident Artist Program in the roles of Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief and Carolina in The Secret Marriage, and on the mainstage as Giannetta in L’Elisir D’Amore.  Laura received additional training during her undergraduate career at Dartmouth College and with Opera North, where she was a studio artist.  She was born in Germany and grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Laura has performed extensively in concert and chamber settings, both in traditional repertoire such as Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Eté, Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, the Haydn Nelson Mass, Faure Requiem, and Bach B-minor Mass, and also in progressive works such as Louis Andriessen’s Trilogy of the Last Day, George Crumb’s Madrigales, Hindemith’s Des Todes Tod, and Lester Trimble’s Canterbury Tales.  She has collaborated with composers in the creation of new works including Linda Tutas Haugen’s opera Pocahontas, Stan Hoffman’s opera Seijo, and Mehmet Sanlikol’s concert work Ergenekon. 

In competition, Laura has been a finalist in the New England Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the Portland Opera Eleanor Lieber Competition, and a semi-finalist in the Houston Grand Opera Studio Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers.