Kristin Gornstein

Praised as “a fine actress with a deep, spacious sound” [Parterre], American mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein brings her “rich-voiced mezzo-soprano” and “lines of an uncannily silky legato” [New York Times] to her work, ranging from the traditional to the edgy and imaginative. She was lauded for her recent portrayal of Piramo in Johan Hasse’s baroque gem Piramo e Tisbe with The Little Opera Theatre of New York, with Opera News calling her performance, “...masterful. She sang the difficult role with a truly flawless lyric mezzo”. She enjoyed her Lincoln Center debut in the role of Wang Sheng in the China Now Music Festival’s production of Painted Skin by Hao Weiya.

Recent performances include the title role in Dido and Aeneas with Opera Fort Collins, Antonio in Antonio e Cleopatra with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and the world premiere of Weiser/Kaplan’s opera The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language. This season she will have several company premieres, among them Lorelei Ensemble and Portland Baroque Orchestra. In 2020, Kristin established the duo Vertex with pianist Jeremy Chan, with whom she has enjoyed an active performing relationship since 2015. They have released two recordings; a self-produced EP Still, in 2020, followed by a full-length album entitled Joy, Too, with Navona Records in 2024. Vertex premiered The Year of the Orchid, a song set written for them by composer Tonia Ko in the Brooklyn Art Song Society’s New Voices Festival in June 2025.