NAOMI LOUISA O’CONNELL made her professional debut in 2012, starring on London’s West End as Sharon Graham in Terrence McNally’s Tony Award-winning play Master Class. A singer, actress and cabaret artist, her recent engagements include recitals at Carnegie Hall, Stanford University and Rockefeller University, Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony with l’Orquestra Jovem do Estado de São Paulo, her one-woman German cabaret FRAU at New York’s Neue Galerie, a workshop of Richard Nelson’s new play Oblivion with Lincoln Center Theater and performances with Geneva Opera, Opera Omaha, and Spoleto Festival USA.
Last season, she appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony as Mélisande in the Maeterlinck play Pelléas & Mélisande and will return for the same role in the opera of Debussy this October, conducted by Louis Langrée. Notable operatic roles include Monteverdi’s Poppea with Opera Frankfurt, Cherubino with Welsh National Opera and Atlanta Opera, and Offenbach’s La Périchole with Garsington Opera.
As an actress, she made her US stage debut as Rosine/Countess Almaviva in The Figaro Plays of Beaumarchais at the McCarter Theatre and recently played the role of Lilli Vanessi/Kate in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate. Prizes include 1st Prize in Operetta in the 2008 International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition, and 1st Prize in both the Caruso/Altamura International Singing Competition and Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2011.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a natural in the recital format” for her Carnegie Hall debut recital entitled ‘Witches, Bitches, and Women in Britches’ at Weill Recital Hall, she has performed in concert venues across the USA, and maintains an active recital career. A proud graduate of The Juilliard School and Royal Irish Academy of Music, Ms. O’Connell is currently based in New York City.