A regional finalist of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council

Auditions, soprano Courtney Kalbacker has delighted audiences with her

expressive tone and powerful stage presence. Equally at home performing concert works, opera, and music theatre, Ms. Kalbacker has been an active performer in Boston, Oklahoma City and, now, Baltimore City. She has enjoyed performing as a soloist in concerts works including Carmina Burana, Mozart's "Coronation" Mass, and Exsultate, jubilate under the baton of Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett with the Tanglewood Institute Chorus and the Back Bay Chorale.

In the summer of 2008,

Ms. Kalbacker made her debut at Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Shed and

Ozawa Hall as a soprano soloist in Honegger’s Le Roi David with the

Boston University Tanglewood Institute Chorus.  Ms. Kalbacker has recently been featured in productions with the Oklahoma City University Opera and Music Theatre Company (title role in The Ballad of

Baby Doe and “Frau Fluth” in Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor ), the Harvard Early Music Society (“Melide” in Cavalli’s L’Ormindo), and Spotlighter's Theater of Baltimore (Bellomy in The Fantasticks). She will be making her debut with the Victorian Lyric Opera Company (D.C.) in the spring of 2012 as Adele in Die Fledermaus.  An active recitalist, she has also given several high profile collaborative recitals, including performing with baritone Simon Estes in his hometown near Des Moines, Iowa. Ms. Kalbacker is also heavily involved with contemporary composers, debuting several award-winning song cycles, choral works and operas within the last few years. In addition to her developing solo career, Ms. Kalbacker serves as an energetic member of the voice faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. There, she teaches private voice, directs opera scenes, and has developed and implemented the “Acting and Movement for Singers” course.  Currently, Ms. Kalbacker resides in Baltimore City with her husband baritone Jeffrey Gates while maintaining private voice studios in Baltimore and New York City.