Hailed for her "rich mezzo" (OPERA Magazine), Mezzo-Soprano Mariya Kaganskaya returned to San Francisco Opera in the 2023-2024 Season to cover the role of Third Lady in The Magic Flute. Additional appearances included reprising the role of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with West Bay Opera and making her Opera Columbus debut as Larina in Eugene Onegin. She begins the 2024-2025 Season with a debut at Opera San José as Third Lady in The Magic Flute under the baton of Alma Deutscher and appears in concert singing works by Wagner, Elinor Armer, and Aleksandra Vrebalov.

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2022-2023 Season highlights include joining the San Francisco Opera roster to cover roles in Dialogues des Carmélites and releasing her debut solo album, To My Little Dreamer, on the Lexicon Classics label. In the 2021-2022 Season, Ms. Kaganskaya performed the roles of Beppe in L'amico Fritz with Teatro Grattacielo, Rowan in the world premiere of We Wear the Sea Like a Coat and Sandman in an acclaimed film version of Hansel and Gretel with Opera Ithaca, Larina in Eugene Onegin with Opera Omaha, and Polina/Milovzor in Pique Dame with West Bay Opera.

Roles in previous seasons include Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Herodias (cover)/Page in Salome, Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas, and Charlotte (cover) in Werther at Florida Grand Opera, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, and Third Wood Sprite in Rusalka at Arizona Opera, and Teacher in the Santa Fe Opera’s world premiere production of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, the recording of which earned the GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording. 

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Additional roles include Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), the title role of Serse, Olga (Eugene Onegin), Hostess (Boris Godunov), Marta (Iolanta), La Nourrice (Milhaud's Médée), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), and Julia Bertram (Mansfield Park). Oratorio credits include performances as the Mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, and Handel’s Messiah. 

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Ms. Kaganskaya’s training includes residencies with the Santa Fe Opera, Arizona Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, and the iSing International Festival in China. She is an alumna of the OperaWorks Advanced Artist Program and the Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts, and earned her MM and PGD at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Catherine Cook.

Her recent awards include First Place in the Classical Singer Competition (Emerging Professional Division), the Lois Alba Aria Competition, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the St. Petersburg Opera Guild Competition, the Gershwin International Music Competition, the Pacific Musical Society Competition, and the Eastern, Southeastern, and At Large Regions of the NATS Artist Awards; Second Place in the Henry and Maria Holt Memorial Competition; Third Place in the Edward M. Murray International Competition of Voice, the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and the East Bay Opera League Competition, and Fifth Place/Special Encouragement Award from the Pasadena Vocal Competition. She is a Winner of the most recent Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Foundation Competition and the inaugural Butler Opera International Competition, as well as the Pasadena Opera Guild Competition and the San Francisco District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the recipient of Encouragement Awards from the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition and the Western Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council.

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Ms. Kaganskaya is represented by Piper Artists Management. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, toddler son, and rescue dog.