Krisztina Szabó

Hungarian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó appears regularly with Canada’s leading opera companies and orchestras. Recent performances include Handel’s Messiah with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Judith in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Edmonton Opera, and appearances with the Canadian Opera Company as Madame Larina in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Margret in Berg’s Wozzeck.

During the 2025/26 season, Ms. Szabó appears in recital at Toronto’s Off Centre Music Salon and makes her Manitoba Opera debut as Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro. She returns to Tafelmusik as alto soloist in Messiah and participates in two world premieres by Jeffrey Ryan: Seven Scenes with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Mother/Land with the Vancouver Bach Choir. Additional engagements include Messiah with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Nella in Gianni Schicchi and the Principessa in Suor Angelica with Opera 5.

Further recent operatic highlights include Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw (Opera 5), Marie/Angel 2 in Written on Skin (Orchestre National de Lille), Helena in R.U.R. A Torrent of Light (Tapestry Opera), Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice (Vancouver Opera), and Gertrude in Hänsel und Gretel (Canadian Opera Company). Earlier in her career, she also made signature roles of Angelina (La Cenerentola), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Dido (Dido and Aeneas).

Internationally, Szabó has appeared with San Francisco Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Chicago Opera Theater, and Wexford Festival Opera. In 2018, she made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Dutch National Opera debuts in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence, later recorded for an album that earned a Grammy nomination. In her native Canada, she is a regular presence with the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Calgary Opera, Tapestry Opera, and Early Music Vancouver.

A favourite on the concert stage, Szabó has recently sung Handel’s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Cleveland Orchestra and Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Music of the Baroque, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Widely celebrated in contemporary repertoire, she has premiered works including Ian Cusson’s Songs from the House of Death (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) and Where There’s a Wall (National Arts Centre Orchestra), Leslie Uyeda’s When I Stop Saying Your Name (Little Chamber Music Series), Alice Ho’s The Quietness of Winter (Vancouver Island Symphony), and Toshio Hosokawa’s The Raven (Toronto New Music Project, University of Toronto).

Ms. Szabó’s discography includes Dean Burry’s The Highwayman (Centrediscs), Jeffrey Ryan’s Found Frozen (Centrediscs), New Jewish Music, Vol. 3 (Analekta), Ana Sokolović’s Sirens (Naxos), and Where Words and Music Meet (Centrediscs). She has also appeared in digital projects with the Canadian Opera Company, Tafelmusik, Early Music Vancouver, Festival of the Sound, Vancouver Opera, and Tapestry Opera.

The recipient of a Canada Council Emerging Artist grant, Szabó has also been honored by her hometown of Mississauga with a star on its Music Walk of Fame. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the University of Western Ontario before joining the Canadian Opera Company’s Young Artist Program. She now serves as Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at the University of British Columbia School of Music.