Soprano Abigail Kempson grew up in Wilton, CT, where she began her operatic studies at the age of 14. She received her Bachelor of Music from Gettysburg College, where she performed the roles of Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, First Witch in Dido and Aeneas, and Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, the latter of which led to her European debut in the same role at the Varna Opera House in Bulgaria in 2011. In the fall of the same year, she spent four months studying music and culture in Vienna, Austria, taking voice lessons from Donna Robin.
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After graduating in 2013, Abigail performed several concerts with the One World Symphony in New York under the baton of Sung Jin Hong. While with them, she premiered the role of Skyler White in Hong’s opera Breaking Bad – Ozymandias, based on the awarding winning TV show.
In 2014, she returned to school to earn her Master in Music, studying voice with Laura Brooks Rice at Westminster College of the Arts of Rider University. There she performed as Alice Ford in Falstaff, as well as in scenes of Lucia do Lammermoor as the title role. She also performed in a variety art song concerts featuring standards from the repertoire with an emphasis on German Lieder, as well as a few compositions of her own. While a student of the college, she was fortunate enough to perform with the Westminster Symphonic Choir under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, singing such works as Mahler’s Second Symphony, Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
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Since leaving school, Abigail has performed both locally and abroad. In January of 2017, she sang the role of Violetta in La Traviata with CoOPERAtive. In April of the same year, she competed in Vocal Competition of Annapolis Opera, winning the Cheryl and Richard Hack Award. She returned to Europe that summer to make her German debut singing Queen of the Night in Lyric Opera Studio Weimar’s production of Die Zauberföte, a role which she has since reprised twice, first with Opera 691, and then again with CoOPERAtive in January of 2018.
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Performing as the Queen of the Night (Right) during a production of Die Zauberföte with CoOPERAtive in January of 2018
Abigail is an avid musician, and when not singing she can be found writing and arranging her own compositions, as well as collaborating with local artists to bring new works of classical music to the public.