“The assertive Mezzo” (Wall Street Journal), Carlyle Quinn has been hailed as a singer of “vocal prowess and acting acumen” (Cleveland Classical).

In the 2025/26 season, she joins the Curtis Institute of Music as a Professional Studies Certificate student. She makes her Curtis Opera Theater debut as La messaggera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, sings as the Alto Soloist in Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone, and returns to the role of Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also makes her Marian Anderson Hall debut with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn under Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The 2024/25 season marked her return to Opera North as a Principal Artist, portraying Marcellina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Aldonza/Dulcinea in Mitch Leigh’s Man of La Mancha. Her portrayal of Aldonza was praised by the Rutland Herald as a “show-stealing performance,” noting her “magnificent mezzo” and searing dramatic intensity. Carlyle also debuted at the Savannah Voice Festival as a Study Grant Artist, premiering the role of Angelina in Michael Ching’s Cinderella’s Royal Feast.

In the 2023/24 season, she was a Resident Artist with Opera North, where she portrayed an “irresistible” Maddalena (Rutland Herald) in Verdi’s Rigoletto. She also sang Vénus in Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers and Lucinda in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, additionally voicing the Giant and covering the Witch. She joined Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble as Cissy in Robert Nelson’s Tickets, Please!

Her 2022/23 season included a “brilliantly characterized” (Cleveland Classical) Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon with the Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater. She also appeared as Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, praised for her “riveting death scene.” Other highlights included Florence Pike in Britten’s Albert Herring at Harrower Summer Opera, her Alto Soloist debut in Mozart’s Requiem with the Lima Symphony Orchestra, and a recital with pianist Matias Cuevas at the Church of the Western Reserve. She earned the 2023 Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition (Michigan District) and was a semifinalist in the Dallas Opera Guild’s Lone Star Vocal Competition and the Federation of Art Song Fellowship Competition.

In 2021/22, Carlyle sang selections from Bizet’s Carmen as the title role with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra during the school’s centennial gala. She portrayed Meg Page in Falstaff for CIMOT’s Shakespeare, Operatically festival and appeared as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Rutgers Opera Theater. Other performances included Ježibaba in Dvořák’s Rusalka at Utah Vocal Arts Academy and participation in the Cleveland Art Song Festival, working with Warren Jones, David Portillo, Craig Terry, and Tamara Wilson. That season, she received a Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Encouragement Award (Utah District).

During the pandemic season of 2020/21, she performed virtually in Juilliard Opera Theater’s filmed A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Oberon, Hermia, and Cobweb, covered Arcane in Händel’s Teseo, sang in a Liederabend with Pierre Vallet, and presented a solo recital with Adam Nielsen. She also participated in Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy.

Highlights of 2019/20 included collaborations with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLive Arts Series, the New York Philharmonic, and Juilliard Opera Theater for Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, in which she portrayed Indiana Elliot. She also appeared in the devised opera There’s Blood Between Us as Madame de Croissy and sang Mezzo II in Debussy’s Nocturnes with the New York Philharmonic under Louis Langrée.

In 2018/19, Carlyle covered Dido in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas with Juilliard Opera Theater and Juilliard415, touring to the Joye in Aiken Festival, Opera Holland Park, and L’Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles.

Carlyle earned her Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2023, studying with Dr. Mary Schiller. She graduated with the Boris Goldovsky Prize in Opera, awarded for outstanding operatic performance, and was the inaugural recipient of the Emma Lincoln Scholarship. She holds a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Edith Wiens, having been accepted at age sixteen. In 2017, she attended the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, appearing with the Nürnberger Symphoniker, Historischer Reitstadel Neumarkt, and in cabaret with pianist Craig Terry. From 2014 to 2017, she studied at Juilliard Pre-College with Lorraine Nubar, supported by a George London Foundation scholarship, and performed as Alto Soloist in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. She continues her vocal studies with soprano Jennifer Rowley at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Carlyle discovered opera at age eight and made her debut in 2013 as the Shepherd Boy in Portland Opera’s Tosca. She twice won the MetroArts Young Artists Debut Concerto Competition, performing Gluck and Gounod with members of the Oregon Symphony and Portland Opera Orchestra, and appeared as the Faerie No. 2 soloist in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Oregon Ballet Theater.