Jocelyn Buyck Photograpy
Soprano Kathleen Magee Querec made her Lincoln Center debut with New York City Opera singing Yvette in Puccini's La Rondine in 2003. Over three seasons with NYCO, she also sang Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Frasquita in Carmen, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Gianetta in l’elisir d’amore, Lady Ella in Patience, Annina in La Traviata and Amy in Mark Adamo’s Little Women with NYCO’s premiere tour of Japan as part of the 2005 World Expo performing in Tokyo and Nagoya.
With a voice that "brings to mind rivers in the Rockies, with clarity and crispness underlying her instinctive tender performance style" (Contra Costa Times) Ms. Magee Querec has been consistently catching the attention of critics. Her "crystalline, bell like quality and sparking characterizations" (The Independent) have allowed her a varied career over the past three decades.
Ms. Magee Querec has most recently sung the role of Berta in The Barber of Seville at the Gallo Center in Modesto with Townsend Opera (Opera Modesto), the soprano solos in the acclaimed American Requiem by James DeMars, with Music in the Mountains Chorus and Orchestra at Peace Lutheran Church in Grass Valley, CA and the Angel in Respighi's Laud to the Nativity with Music in the Mountains for their Holiday Concerts at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. She also was the soprano soloist in Haydn's Little Organ Mass and Dan Forrest's Requiem in 2018.
Having a love of new music, she has performed many new compositions for Music In the Mountains Young Composers Project. Over the past seasons, she has made multiple appearances with Music in the Mountains and the Nevada County Composers Cooperative singing settings of Shakespeare's Sonnets 64 and 65 for voice and harp by Jozi Gullickson. Kathleen sang an encore performance of Kia Montana Smith's Mewlips at the Music In the Mountains Summerfest, mainstage concert in June, 2016. She was invited back to her alma mater, California Polytechnic State University in 2015, by Dr. Thomas Davies, to sing Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer and other selections with the Cal Poly Choirs in San Luis Obispo as a featured distinguished alumni. Ms. Magee Querec also sang a repeat engagement of Gilda with Livermore Valley Opera in Rigoletto in the fall of 2014 after appearing in the same role in 1998.
While teaching at the Northside Fine Arts Academy in Syracuse, New York, over six years, she performed three recitals with Civic Morning Musicals, the longest running classical recital series at the Everson Art Museum, was broadcast live on The Concert Hall with Bill Baker on WCNY FM, and sang Lucy in Menotti's The Telephone at The New York State Fair, Empire Theater, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Syracuse Opera, was a soloist at the Clinton Square Summer Concerts Series as well as many featured appearances with Oswego Opera.
Selected Operatic career highlights have been Gretel in Hansel & Gretel with Opera Roanoke, Adina in L'Elisir d'amore with Bob Jones University and Liederkrantz Opera, Gilda in Rigoletto with Mobile Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Marzelline in Fidelio with Pacific Repertory Opera, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Ash Lawn-Highland Festival, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Lamplighters Musical Theatre at Yerba Buena Theater, San Francisco, Adele in Die Fledermaus with Indianapolis Opera and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Chautauqua Opera. Concert highlights have included Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Kenosha Symphony, WI, Orff’s Carmina Burana with Mobile Opera, AL and Handel's Messiah with Racine Symphony, WI and the East Bay Charity Choir, Lafayette, CA.
Kathleen has been a regular church soloist and recitalist. She has sung at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Redeemer Hoboken in New Jersey, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Christ Church Winnetka in Illinois, United Church of Fayetteville in New York, Asbury United Methodist Church in Livermore, California and Fernandina Beach First Baptist Church, FL.
She received a Master of Music Degree in Voice from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Graphic Design with a Minor in Music from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA. Kathleen has garnered awards for her singing from the Ellen Faull Gordon Vocal Competition, WA, MacAllister Awards, IN, North Shore Bel Canto Foundation, Illinois Federation of Music Clubs, San Luis Obispo Rotary International Club, CA, Ralph E. and Florence B. Welles Music Award, CA, Cal Poly Faculty Award Scholarship, San Francisco NATS Classical Competition, CA, Henry and Maria Holt Memorial Scholarship Foundation, CA and was chosen a Regional Finalist with Special Honors from The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Central Region, IL. She has been chosen a Young Artist for the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Virginia Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY. At Northwestern University, she was awarded a Libarace Scholarship for Performing and Creative Arts Award as well as the Lorene Kelly Skornia Fund Award.
Ms. Magee Querec is originally from Livermore, California and now lives, performs and teaches in Fernandina Beach, Florida with her husband; musician, composer and producer Kyle Querec.