Kirsten C. Kunkle is delighted to return for her fourth season as our Messiah soprano soloist. Her extensive work includes performances with the Toledo Choral Society, including The Seven Last Words of Christ, the world premiere of the Great Lakes Cantata for the Centennial Jubilee, Considering Matthew Shepard, and most recently Carmina Burana. Kirsten is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Wilmington Concert Opera, a women and minority-run opera company in Delaware. Her career has taken her to prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall.

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Kirsten’s favorite roles include creating the character of Charlotte Corday in Girondines, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Magda in The Consul, Mimì in La Bohème, and the title role in Suor Angelica. She has also recorded Arabella in the NAXOS world premiere of Johann Strauss II’s operetta Blindekuh, written for OPERA AMERICA magazine, and premiered her first opera libretto, Girondines.

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As a voting citizen of the Mvskoke Nation, Kirsten is lauded as one of today’s leading Native American sopranos. In 2023, she premiered her art song Reclaim the Land at Yellowstone National Park's 150th anniversary, which was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and BBC Radio. Kirsten also made her performance debut and received a composition commission with Chicago Fringe Opera, along with her stage direction and choreography debut with Mission Opera in Los Angeles.

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In 2024, Kirsten will debut an eight-part a cappella choral work, Mvskoke, Este’Cate (Muscogee People, Native People), a commission funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. She recently served as Artist in Residence with Firelands Symphony Chorale, performing as the soprano soloist for Poulenc’s Gloria, Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, and the world premiere of Matthew Kennedy’s Prayer for Peace. Kirsten is also involved in new music and will premiere the role of Ipp’osi’ in Loksi’ Shaali’, the first opera entirely in Chickasaw, with Canterbury Voices.

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Her future engagements include a debut with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in the world premiere of Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s An American Indian Symphony, and a performance of Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at the Kennedy Center with PostClassical Ensemble. In 2025, she will perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Firelands Symphony Orchestra and make her role debut as Tosca with Mission Opera.

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A proud graduate of Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan, Kirsten was born in Toledo, Ohio, and now resides in Sandusky. For more information, please visit www.kirstenckunkle.com.