Mary Burke Barber

Hailing from Northern Virginia, nestled between the Shenandoah mountains and D.C., mezzo-soprano Mary Burke Barber, “reveals [her] powerfully rich voice of regal warmth and strength” (critic Patrick D. McCoy). She has performed internationally, having made her debut with the Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra in 2015. Mary made her operatic debut as Hänsel in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel with the Peabody Opera Department in 2016.

She has earned first place awards at the ​National Society of Arts and Letters-Washington, DC chapter's Shirley Rabb Winston annual Voice Competition, ​the Yong Siew Toh International Concerto Competition - Voice Finals, the regional National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) music competition, and the Northern Virginia Music Teachers Association (NVMTA) music competition. Mary was awarded second place in the National Society of Arts and Letters’ Shirley Rabb Winston annual Voice Competition - Nationals, and the Sylvia Green Voice Competition through the Peabody Institute of Music.

Mary began her musical studies at the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore, Maryland under the care of Phyllis Bryn-Julson. During her undergraduate studies, she completed a joint degree with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, under the direction of Alan Bennett. She completed her master's degree at Peabody under the tutelage of Denyce Graves-Montgomery and Margaret Baroody in the Spring of 2018.