Praised for her “powerful, rich, nuanced” voice and “emotionally moving” performances, Kathleen Felty is a recent alumna of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center. Felty received attention from the Chicago Tribune for her “clarion tone” and “compelling acting” in her mainstage debut as Laura in Verdi’s Luisa Miller in 2019. She went on to perform alongside Sondra Radvanovsky in Lyric’s production of The Three Queens, which was released as an album in 2022. In Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2021-2022 season, she performed the roles of Third Lady in Barrie Kosky’s production of The Magic Flute, Carmen, and Third Lady in The Magic Victrola; covered the role of Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas, and appeared in concert for Sunday in the Park with Lyric’s Rising Stars, Rising Stars in Concert, and as the alto soloist for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony alongside Matthew Polenzani and Eric Owens, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Her other notable performances in Chicago include Sole e Amore, Magic Music Around the World, Twilight Gods, the Harris Theater’s Beyond the Aria series, and multiple recitals for Chicago’s WFMT Classical Radio.

Felty is a former apprentice artist of the Santa Fe Opera, where she received the Katharine Mayer Award and covered Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos. She returned in 2022 to sing the role of Mercédès in Carmen. Also in 2022, Felty made her Des Moines Metro Opera debut as Third Lady in The Magic Flute.  

She has also participated in Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute Program for Singers and, more recently, the Solti Accademia di Bel Canto fellowship program in Italy. Felty made her North Carolina Opera concert debut as Clotilde in Norma and her Dayton Opera debut in the role of Maddalena in Rigoletto. 

A native of Lubbock, Texas, Felty holds Bachelor Degrees in Music and Business Administration from Texas Tech University and a Master of Music from the AJ Fletcher Opera Institute at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Her Fletcher performances include Charlotte in Werther, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Unulfo in Rodelinda, Miss Jessell in Turn of the Screw, Geneviève in Impressions de Pelléas, Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas. Felty is a six-time District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition and a winner of the Charlotte Opera Guild Vocal Competition and the Heafner Williams Vocal Competition.