Praised for her "fine coloratura technique" (Opera Magazine), Ms. Martin was grateful to have the chance to return to more live performances in the 2021-2022 season following the pandemic, with appearances including Rossini's La Cenerentola (Kristin Roach, conductor; Josh Shaw, director) with Pacific Opera Project as Tisbe/Cenerentola cover at The Ford in Hollywood, recitals with GRAMMY-nominated guitarist Mak Grgić, the workshop of Carla Lucero's Las tres mujeres de Jerusalén with LA Opera Connects, recordings of new song cycles inspired by Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion, and the world premiere recording of Rosa Divina, a ravishing song cycle by Giovanni Piacentini to texts by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, which was released on the album Viajeros in 2023. 

 

In February 2020 Ms. Martin appeared with GRAMMY Award-winner Anna Wise in a unique, multidisciplinary program under the auspices of GIRLSCHOOL in collaboration with LA Opera and Kensington Presents. In November of the same year she sang in her first drive-in opera production with Pacific Opera Project in the U.S. Premiere stagings of Gluck's La corona and Il Parnaso confuso (Kyle Naig, conductor; Carson Gilmore & Josh Shaw, directors), for which she was recognized as "the most outstanding singer of the evening" by Broadway World.

​

Ms. Martin's 18/19 season included debuts with Orange County Opera as Rosina in their touring outreach production of The Barber of Seville and with LA Opera Connects in German Opera Tales. She portrayed Hester Prynne in scenes from composer Mark Carlson and librettist Bruce Olstad's The Scarlet Letter in Sacramento, and she appeared in the inaugural performance by New Opera West as the Bartender in a selection from Gilberto, an opera in development by composer Nicolás Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch, and as Angie in an excerpt from Pepito, a 20-minute opera by the same creative team. In the summer she was a Vocal Fellow at Music Academy of the West, where she was a winner in the inaugural Fast Pitch Competition and was praised for her "poignantly sung" Sara in the West Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon and Gene Scheer's Cold Mountain (Daniela Candillari, conductor; James Darrah, director). In fall of 2019 Ms. Martin returned to Opera UCLA as a guest artist to sing the title role in the world premiere of Carla Lucero and Alicia Gaspar de Alba's Juana (Mary Chun, conductor; Sara Widzer, director), for which People's World claimed that “judging by this promising outing, Meagan Martin has an important career ahead of her.”

Ms. Martin's singing has taken her to Europe and across the U.S. She was the first American ever selected to participate in the Gstaad Vocal Academy with Silvana Bazzoni Bartoli at the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, and she was selected for a masterclass intensive with Teresa Berganza at the Festival Internacional de Panticosa, where Ms. Berganza requested that Ms. Martin sing Angelina’s final aria and a zarzuela selection in the culminating concert. Ms. Martin has also participated in the prestigious Young Artists Vocal Academy (YAVA) at Houston Grand Opera, Teatro Nuovo, W. Stephen Smith’s "The Naked Voice" Institute at Northwestern University, and Vladimir Chernov and Olga Toporkova’s International Vocal Artists Academy in Payerbach, Austria.

Ms. Martin completed both her doctoral and master's degrees in the studio of internationally-acclaimed baritone Vladimir Chernov at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. Under the guidance of Peter Kazaras, Director of Opera UCLA, and Rakefet Hak, Music Director of the UCLA Opera Studio, she performed leading roles in many operas, including Cherubino in Mercadante’s I due Figaro (Joseph Colaneri, conductor; Peter Kazaras, director); Amadora in Musto’s Bastianello (Peter Kazaras, director); Dorabella in Così fan tutte (Neal Stulberg, conductor; Peter Kazaras, director); Fanny Price in Dove’s Mansfield Park (Scott Dunn & Geoffrey Pope, conductors; Peter Kazaras, director); and the title roles in Handel’s Amadigi (Stephen Stubbs & Stephen Karr, conductors; James Darrah, director), Massenet’s Cendrillon (Christopher Ocasek, conductor; Peter Kazaras, director), Bolcom’s Lucrezia (Peter Kazaras, director), and Brook's/Bizet’s The Tragedy of Carmen (Maxim Kuzin, conductor; Brendan Hartnett, director). Ms. Martin also appeared as the Israelitish Man in a landmark presentation of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, conducted by Neal Stulberg. Additional roles performed include Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) with Astoria Music Festival under the baton of Keith Clark and with Pacific Opera Project (Stephen Karr, conductor & Josh Shaw, director); Mercédès (Carmen) with Pacific Opera Project (Stephen Karr, conductor; Josh Shaw, director); and Despina in Così fan tutte (James Martin, conductor; Shana Blake Hill, director) and the title role in Luisa Fernanda with SMC Opera Theater (James Martin, conductor; Janelle DeStefano, director).

​

Ms. Martin has pursued advanced studies in German, Spanish, and Italian as well as elementary training in French and Russian. She earned her B.A. in German at UCLA at age 20, graduating summa cum laude and with Departmental Highest Honors while studying voice privately with Renee Sousa. Prior to attending UCLA, she received her first formal opera training as a member of the Applied Music Program at Santa Monica College, appearing in scenes from Hansel and Gretel, Serse, Suor Angelica, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Mignon in Opera Workshop, under the direction of Gail Gordon. Also a proponent of new music and art song, Ms. Martin attended SongFest twice and has worked with composers Aferdian, Matthew Aucoin, Nicolás Lell Benavides, William Bolcom, Nick Carlozzi, Mark Carlson, Rachel DeVore Fogarty, Brian Eisenberg, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Carla Lucero, John Musto, Giovanni Piacentini, and Shelley Washington. In 2016 she performed the world premiere of Marianne Dashwood: Songs of Love and Misery, a song cycle inspired by Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility with music by Aferdian and text by Marella Martin Koch. She sang the work’s east coast premiere in 2017 at the Jane Austen and the Arts Conference in New York. In 2018 she premiered Elinor Dashwood: A Song Cycle, the sister cycle by the same creative team, at OPERA America’s National Opera Center in the inaugural concert for The Rally Cat, an energized performing arts company based in New York City. In March 2019 she and pianist Douglas Sumi performed both cycles for a special event honoring Anne K. Mellor at the historic William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in Los Angeles. In November 2021 she participated alongside soprano Jana McIntyre and pianists Douglas Sumi and Chérie Roe in the world premiere recording of Elinor & Marianne (Aferdian, composer; Marella Martin Koch, librettist), a stirring double song cycle for two singers and two pianists that gives voice to the sisters at the heart of Austen's first published novel. Ms. Martin’s doctoral dissertation, “Keeping Up Appearances: Fidelity and Performance Issues in the Operatic Adapation of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park,” champions Jane Austen’s novels as a source of adaptation for operatic works.

​

When she’s not performing, Meagan enjoys taking dance classes, studying foreign languages, and expanding her geography knowledge. She is an Amazing Race enthusiast who aspires to compete on the show one day and recently memorized all the countries and national flags of the world.

​

​--

​

Check out Ms. Martin's dissertation here:

"Keeping Up Appearances: Fidelity and Performance Issues in the Operatic Adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park"