elisa sutherland

Known for her “soul-infused expressiveness and unselfconscious joie de vivre” (New York Music Daily),  Elisa Sutherland is a mezzo-soprano, artistic director, producer, and administrator dedicated to detailed, stylistic performances of early and new music. Highlights from this upcoming season include solo appearances with TENET Vocal Artists, New Chamber Ballet, Elm City Consort, the Canticum Novum Singers of NYC, and Alkemie. 

In 2022, Elisa became the co-artistic director of the acclaimed early and new music sextet, Variant 6. She also performs extensively with Ekmeles, another sextet dedicated to exploring microtonal tuning and extended techniques. Elisa frequently appears with the top vocal ensembles in the United States including The Crossing, TENET Vocal Artists, Roomful of Teeth, and Seraphic Fire. 

Elisa has been featured as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire, TENET Vocal Artists, Contemporaneous, Arcana New Music Ensemble, American Bach Soloists, Elm City Consort, Apollo Chorus of Chicago, and Quicksilver Baroque. She was a soloist on The Crossing’s GRAMMY-nominated album, “Boenhoffer,” and has sung on two other GRAMMY-winning records. Elisa has a special love for art song, and in addition to performing with her recital partner, pianist Wei-Han Wu, has sung with LyricFest, Philadelphia's premiere art song concert series, and Brooklyn Art Song Society. 

In addition to winning the Philadelphia District of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 2015, Elisa is the 2014 winner of the Lynne Harvey Cooper Award and was the first-place winner of the inaugural Handel Aria Competition at the Madison Early Music Festival in 2013. Recent opera roles include Hera in Chris Cerrone’s All Wounds Bleed, Ensemble in Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta with the Prototype Festival, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Meg in Little Women, Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea, and Nancy in Albert Herring. Elisa is also remembered for her Blazing Saddles - Madeline Kahn impression in a production of Die Fledermaus.

Outside of performing, Elisa is the General Manager for TENET Vocal Artists, NYC’s preeminent early music vocal ensemble. She has produced two full-length albums with her recording engineer partner, Charles Mueller for Alkemie and Freelance Nun. Elisa graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing, a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. Born in Milwaukee, WI, she now lives in Brooklyn with Charles, her cat Anton, and an unruly monstera deliciosa.