In a Nutshell…

Commended for her fire and dramatic conviction on stage (Chicago Classical Review), Angela Born is an opera theatre artist who is highly committed to artistic integrity and authenticity. While Ms. Born deeply values the history of traditional opera, she feels most connected to the art form when she is working alongside the living, breathing composers of today. As a staunch advocate of new music, Ms. Born is frequently sought as a desired interpreter of new works, premiering both art songs and operatic works for their midwestern, national, and international debuts.  No matter the compositional century in which the work was crafted, Ms. Born always strives to bring her whole self into a performance while respecting the artistry of others. 

If one was to expand…

As a passionate performer of new music, Ms. Born was recently praised for her  “high-wire act of sustained, metaphorically naked” (Chicago Reader) performance in Third Eye Theatre Ensemble’s 2019 American premiere of Juliet Palmer and Anna Chatterton’s Stitch, an a cappella opera written for 3 voices and 3 sewing machines. This groundbreaking work creatively sheds light on the lives of textile workers who craft our clothes for cents. As a proud company member with Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, Ms. Born was tickled pink that their production of Stitch landed the organization the award of “Best Storefront Opera Company” by NewCity and the nomination of “Best Opera of 2019” in the Chicago Reader.  Other roles that Angela has connected to deeply include the conflicted daughter Lucinda in Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters, the artist Patience in Paula Kimper’s Patience and Sarah, the indomitable Meg Murry in Libby Larsen’s workshopped production of A Wrinkle in Time with composer in residence, and the (literal) cat Whiskers in Robin Haigh’s The Man Who Woke Up.

(Until you’ve meowed and purred your way through an aria, have you really lived?)

In addition to performing operatic works by living composers, Angela regularly partners with composers in creating new art songs, and championing their pieces that already exist. In the 2021 season, she snagged 3rd place in the 2021 songSlam competition with the premiere of Michelle Isaac’s “Our Idea of Nothing at All,” with poetry by scathing suffragist Alice Duer Miller. SongSlam 2021 was moderated by famed American opera composer Jake Heggie. In 2018, Ms. Born received a grant from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) to tour the concert series “There Always, Something Sings,” a musical exploration of the effects of religious division and unity. Featuring music by American composers of varied religious and cultural backgrounds, (Michelle Isaac, Mohammed Fairouz, Erik Contzius, and Paul Winchester) this recital was a reflection on the power of peaceful dialogue and the brutal repercussions of cultural division. Ms. Born has also had the pleasure to premiere works by Kathryn Mueller and Hugh Lobel, who both graciously tolerated her presence in an 18 hour car ride to the Midwest Composer’s Symposium in 2016. In fact, after that immense road trip, Kathryn still liked Angela enough to ask her to be the soloist for her work “The Heavens Declare,” with wind symphony in Macky Auditorium. 

Not one to turn down Puccini, Angela kicked off her operatic debut post-graduate degree with the infamous role of Musetta in La Boheme. From there, she was (happily) typecast in similar roles of sass such as Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Serpetta in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, Susanna (cover) and Barbarina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Ännchen in Weber’s Der Freischütz. Other favorite traditional roles include Suor Genovieffa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Monica in Menotti’s The Medium, and the feminist title role in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida. In fact, in the production of Princess Ida, Angela discovered the best way to meet and snag a (literal) husband is to hold him at spearpoint. The spears have since been put away, and Angela and her husband (fellow singer Matt Peckham) have been happily married since 2019.

Despite the informal nature of her bio would lead you to believe, Angela does in fact have formal training. Angela received her M.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder under the tutelage of Julie Simson and her B.M. in Vocal Performance from Illinois Wesleyan University under the guidance of Sam Scifres. Ms. Born also studied at the Institute of European Studies in Vienna with Donna Robin. Ms. Born was a finalist in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, and a recipient of a DCASE grant. Ms. Born currently studies with Julia Bentley. She is proud to have worked alongside conductors Alexandra Enyart, Nicholas Carthy, and Catherine O’Shaughnessy, and is grateful to have also worked alongside directors Rose Freeman, Beth Greenberg, and Amy Hutchison. They’ve all dealt with her oddities, and she is eternally grateful.

As a final note, Angela is a proud cat owner. Her two cats are named Pancake and Waffle (affectionately nicknamed ‘The Breakfast Bois’), and yes, she does write many songs in their honor on a regular basis. She also celebrates their birthdays.

No, she is not ashamed.