Praised by Opera News for her “relish and energy,” mezzo-soprano Max Potter is an up-and-coming artist celebrated for her warmth of tone and dramatic presence.
The 2023 / 2024 season started with Max’s performance as Mercedes in ‘Carmen’ and also included concert performances as Maddalena in excerpts from Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ at Opera Santa Barbara. In the winter, she returned to the company for her role debut as Ines in ‘Il Trovatore’. During the holiday season, Max debuted Max Bruch’s rarely performed “Gruss an die heilige Nacht” and sang excerpts from Humperdinck’s ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ on tour with I Cantori di Carmel – concerts which were streamed on NPR as a part of their Christmas broadcast series. Next season Max makes her role debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ at Opera Santa Barbara.
Highlights from past seasons include Max’s role debut as Octavian in ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ with Pacific Northwest Opera, her symphonic debut as the Alto soloist in Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ at the Washington National Cathedral, and her main stage debut with Chautauqua Opera as Jenny Reefer in ‘The Mother of Us All.’
Previous notable roles include Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Meg Page (Falstaff), Flosshilde & Fricka (Das Rheingold), Beggar Woman (Sweeney Todd), Tebaldo (Don Carlo), Charlotte (Werther), Second Lady & Papgena (Die Zauberflöte), Concepcion (L’heure espagnole), and La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi).
With a natural affinity for new works, Max collaborated with The American Opera Project as part of their Composers & the Voice series throughout 2021 and 2022, making her company debut in AOP’s “First Glimpse” concert series. She returned the following season for “Six Scenes,” a program featuring the world premieres of opera excerpts by emerging and established composers. She was featured in “The Sacred Feminine,” an innovative performance piece celebrating the work of Emily Dickinson through spoken word and art song, with New Camerata Opera. At Des Moines Metro Opera, she sang Heggie’s “The Breaking Waves” in recital for the composer.
Max is an alumna of The Aspen Opera Center, Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist Program, CoOPERAtive, and The Opera Southwest Apprentice Artist Program, among others. She has been named a semi-finalist for the Loren L. Zachary Competition, the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Competition, Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition, Premiere Opera International Vocal Competition, Paris Opera Competition, Mildred Miller International Vocal Competition, and MIOpera Vocal Competition. She is a recipient of awards from the Young Musicians Foundation, CoOPERAtive, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.
A bi-coastal resident of California and the New York City area, Max holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and did her undergraduate work at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.
