Amanda Balltrip, soprano, is a native of Harlan, Kentucky. Most recently, she made her solo debut at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center singing the role of Elizabeth in Angela Rice’s Thy Will Be Done with the National Chorale.  Prior to that she produced No Shirt, No Shoes, No Opera for Watershed Arts Alliance, a show which introduces new audiences to the beauty of opera through humor. In November of 2017 she was heard with the Lexington Singers as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah. She experienced a versatile 2016 season performing roles such as the Bird Woman in The Lexington Theatre Company’s production of Mary Poppins, Stacy in A Nightmare on Backstreet: A Boyband Musical Parody, and Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest, both with Flashback Theater. A champion of new works, she also performed a recital of premiers by Larry Barns at Transylvania University in March of 2016, and in November of 2015 she was awarded the Encouragement Award for the Kentucky District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

 

Other operatic roles include: Marguerite (Faust), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Elizabeth (God Bless Us, Every One!), Musetta (La Bohème), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Despina (Così fan tutte), Frasquita (Carmen), Dorothée (Cendrillion), First witch (Dido and Aeneas), Genovieffa (Suor Angelica), and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte). She was selected by composer Thomas Pasatieri in 2007 to play Tallulah, the leading lady in his comic opera, The Hotel Casablanca, and in 2009 created the role of Ann Rutledge in the world premiere of River of Time by Joseph Baber, an historical opera about the life of Abraham Lincoln. “Creating Ann gives Balltrip a chance to shine as the total package of the acting singer,” said Rich Copley of the Lexinton Herald-Leader of that performance.

 

As a soprano soloist, Amanda has been heard with the Lexington Singers and University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and Handel’s Messiah, with the University of Kentucky Chorale in Mozart’s Requiem, and Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai under the direction of former Lexington Philharmonic conductor George Zach for the Slabaugh Sacred Choral Masterworks Presentation at Central Christian Church. She sang the role of Elizabeth in the world premiere of Thy Will Be Done, an Easter Cantata by Angela Rice.

 

Internationally, Amanda has performed in Montréal, Canada with the International Vocal Arts Institute, as an Alltech Scholar with The Royal Academy of Music in Dublin, Ireland, and in Bogotà, Colombia where she performed a recital of electro-acoustical music for the new music festival, En tiempo real: nuevos espacio sonoros.

 

Amanda was a Kentucky District winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008 after she was recognized with the Encouragement Award in 2006 and 2007. She was also awarded the second place graduate prize in the Alltech Opera Scholarship Competition, which provided her full tuition and a stipend for her master’s degree. She obtained her Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Music Performance from the University of Kentucky under the guidance of Gail Robinson and Dr. Angelique Clay.

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Currently residing in Somerset, KY, Amanda owns a private voice studio located in Flashback Theater's Education Center. She is also a faculty member of University of the Cumberlands and the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts. She proudly serves on the board of Watershed Arts Alliance and is committed to bringing great art home.

 

In the 2022 Season, Amanda focused on her private studio and music directing for the Lake Cumberland Children's Theatre (Annie Jr.) and Flashback Theater (Mary: Her Story). Follow her across social media at @balltripvoicestudio to stay updated!