About
Sophia Maekawa
Praised by her "supple and buttery voice" (The New Criterion), hailing from Kyoto Japan, Japanese-American mezzo soprano, Sophia Maekawa is finishing her tenure as a Ryan Opera Center ensemble member at Lyric Opera of Chicago. This summer Ms. Maekawa sings her first Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Williamsburg Opera, as well as reprising the role of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Wolf Trap Opera.
This season Ms. Maekawa looks forward to performing with Art Song Chicago, covering Crab General/ Venus Star in “The Monkey King” with the San Francisco Opera and making her debuts with the Chicago Opera Theatre and Opera Grand Rapids as well as the soloist in Beethoven 9th Symphony with the Binghamton Philharmonic.
In the 2024/2025 season, as a Ryan Opera ensemble member she appeared as Lee Ann/ The Listeners, Tisbe/La Cenerentola and Pastuchyna/Jenufa as well as covering Cherubino at Lyric and Li song in Émigré (US Premier) with the New York Philharmonic.
Ms. Maekawa is the recipient of multiple awards and career grants such as the Richard F. Gold career grant from the Shoshana Foundation in 2025, Virginia Cooper Maier Award winner from Musicians Club of Women in 2024, scholarship winner of American Opera Society of Chicago in 2024. She was also a semi-finalist in the Houston Grand Opera "Concert of Arias" Elenor McCollun Competition in 2022, first place in Tokyo International Vocal Music Competition 2020 and was a finalist in the 2020 Music Competition of Japan where she received the Tokyo Newspaper (Tokyo Shinbun) award.
As an Apprentice Artist in Santa Fe Opera in 2022, she covered Rosina in il barbiere di Siviglia and Comrade Chin/ Shu Fang in Huang Ruo’s M.Butterfly.
In summer of 2021 she was a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Previous credits include: Ariodante (Ariodante), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Annio (La clemenza di Tito), Mercedes (Carmen), Nancy (Albert Herring), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Second Woman (Dido and Aeneas) with companies such as Curtis Opera Theatre and Chautauqua Institution.
