American mezzo-soprano Cierra Byrd returns for her second year in The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. This season, she will make her Met debut as Bertha in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Recently, she appeared in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Marin Alsop. Notable accolades include the Wilson Vocal Award, Peabody’s Artist Excellence Award, and the British Art Song Society Competition in London. She is a recent graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, from the studio of Margaret Baroody and Denyce Graves. Recent and future roles include the Princess in Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Lady Catherine DeBourgh in the stage premiere of Kirke Mechem’s Pride and Prejudice with Peabody Opera Theatre, the Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Opera Saratoga and Manual Cinema, and the Governess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades with Des Moines Metro Opera.