Chicago-based mezzo-soprano Mallory Harding has been praised as having “a dramatic, bold vocal presence, simultaneously agile and full.” (Myron Silberstein). Most recently she served as the alto soloist for excerpts from Messiah with the Naperville Chorus and Naperville Festival Orchestra. The past three summers, Mallory has performed with the Opera Festival of Chicago in the chorus of Verdi’s Attilla, Pizetti’s Assassinio nella Cattedrale, and Verdi’s Il Corsaro. She performed with Haymarket Opera in their filmed production of Acis and Galatea, and previously covered the role of Maxualinda and sang in the chorus for Haymarket’s production of The Dragon of Wantley by John Frederick Lampe. As the founding member and the Artistic Director of New Moon Opera, Mallory has appeared as Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Armelinde in Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon, Croûte-au-Pot in Mesdames de la Halle by Offenbach, Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, and Hansel in Hansel and Gretel.
Ms. Harding performed with Evanston Chamber Opera in the world premiere of Joseph’s Gift by Francis Lynch as Alto Narrator and was hailed as “simply fanastic” (Aaron Hunt, Chicago Theatre Review). She often performs with the Canterbury Singers of Dixon, IL. She is also the alto section leader at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Wilmette as well as the applied voice teacher and choir director at Oakton College.
Mallory Harding received her Master of Music degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she performed the roles of Tisbe in La Cenerentola and Valencienne in The Merry Widow. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from North Central College