Acclaimed for her radiant lyric soprano and compelling stage presence, Tessa McQueen recently completed her tenure as a member of the prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera. During her time in the program, she appeared in The Magic Flute (First Lady), La traviata (Annina), and the Met’s Summerstage Recital Series in 2025 and 2026.
Highlights of McQueen’s 26/27 season include her European debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival in Wagner’s Die Walküre (Helmwige), presented as part of the festival’s new Ring cycle with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko and directed by Kirill Serebrennikov. She also appears at the Sag Harbor Song Festival. In addition, she has been selected to compete in the 2026 edition of Operalia in Shanghai.
In the summer of 2026, McQueen returned to Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist in Puccini’s Tosca (title role) and made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Gianandrea Noseda. In the summer of 2025, she covered Strauss’ Guntram (Freihild) with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
McQueen was a participant in the Merola Opera Program in 2024, where she covered Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira) and performed Pagliacci (Nedda) in the Schwabacher Summer Scenes Concert. As a Studio Artist with Wolf Trap Opera in 2023, she covered Faust (Marguerite), sang in the choruses of Semele and Faust, and performed scenes from Idomeneo (Elettra), Falstaff (Alice Ford), and Der Rosenkavalier (Marschallin).
Her early professional engagements include her debut with Central City Opera in the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Two Remain (Out of Darkness) (Krystyna Żywulska), where she was a Young Artist supported by the El Pomar Foundation and received the company’s Young Artist Award. She was also an Opera-to-Go Young Artist with Opera Saratoga, appearing in Jack and the Beanstalk (Jack’s Mother, the Giant’s Wife).
A prize-winning artist, McQueen won first prize in both the 2026 Cooper-Bing Competition and the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition. She was also named a National Finalist in the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition after winning both the Colorado–Wyoming District and Rocky Mountain Region rounds. Additional honors include prizes from the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition and the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition.
On the concert stage, McQueen has appeared as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Washington City Choir and John Rutter’s Requiem with the Rice Chorale.
McQueen holds a Master of Music from Rice University and a Bachelor of Music, with honors, from Oklahoma City University, where her roles included The Bartered Bride (Marie), Susannah (title role), and Cendrillon (title role). She is based in New York City.
2026-2027
