Margaret Woods

Hailed as a “Stand-out voice,” Margaret Woods has quickly established a diverse career of opera, new music, concert & crossover work. Her performances have brought her praise for her expressive and clear sound as well as her honest dramatic interpretations.

Margaret is based in Richmond, Virginia, and has a passion for performing in local venues and performance spaces. Performance highlights from the 2022/2023 season include a Richmond Symphony debut as the featured soloist for Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ 31st annual Holiday Festival of Music at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, singing with Tonality and the Kronos Quartet for the University of Richmond Modlin Center’s production and recording of Michael Abels’ At War With Ourselves, performances with Vox Humana, a new chamber ensemble in Richmond directed by William Bradley Roberts and soprano soloist for Haydn’s Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze (Seven Last Words) with Ginter Park Presbyterian Church & orchestra. In the 2021/2022 season Margaret was the soprano soloist for Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Richmond Ballet for the 2022 Gubernatorial Inauguration Celebration of the Arts and she debuted the role of Marie-Thérèse for RVA Baroque’s world premiere of a new opera by Niccolo and Raphael Seligmann, Julie Monster: A Queer Baroque Opera at the Firehouse Theater. 

As an active recitalist, Margaret enjoys a passion for both art song and chamber music. Last year, she won third place in Sparks & Wiry Cries SongSlam 2022 Competition, performing Michael Wisnosky’s A Certain Slant of Light. She has also been featured in numerous recitals and concerts including Penn Square Opera’s virtual production of Jingle All the Cabaret, Williamsburg Music Club, Libby Larsen’s The Birth Project and other Songs of Life at the Richmond Public Library’s Gellman Room, and as the headlining artist for Encore Choral Institute at the Chautauqua Amphitheater. Other recital and concert highlights include an interview about Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel for Concerts at Trinity on VPM Radio with Mike Goldberg, soprano soloist for Bach’s Magnificat in D at Market Square Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, PA, with the Harrisburg Camerata, and soprano soloist for Messiah & More and John Rutter’s Mass of the Children with Garden State Philharmonic. Margaret was a Colburn Foundation Fellow at SongFest in Los Angeles, where she was a featured performer on the New Voices in Song recital, singing John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan. She was selected twice to sing in Westminster Choir College’s Lindsey Christiansen Art Song Festival and has performed masterclasses with Tom Cipullo, Libby Larsen, Graham Johnson, Jake Heggie, Richard Pearson Thomas, Grant Gershon, Susan Graham, Kathleen Kelly and Jeanine De Bique. Margaret has a variety of operatic credits to her name, such as Madame Goldentrill (Impresario) with VCU Opera Theater, Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites) with Westminster Opera Theater, Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Jeunesses Musicales in Grožnjan, Croatia, Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) with Painted Sky Opera, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and other various roles performed through young artist and training programs such as Classic Lyric Arts: La Lingua Della Lirica, Crittenden Opera Workshop, and Capitol Opera of Richmond. As a chorister, Margaret has sung under the direction of conductors like Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Alan Gilbert, Gary Thor Wedow, Erin Freeman, Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Joe Miller, Tom Hall, Rollo Dillworth, Charles Dutoit and has sung on the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Kimmel Center, David Geffen Hall and the Dominion Energy Center.

Margaret values the transformative power of music across all ages and abilities. In addition to her singing career, Margaret is passionate about teaching voice and vocal pedagogy. She serves as adjunct voice faculty for  Virginia Commonwealth University, Berkshire Choral International, Encore Choral Institute and has been a guest lecturer at Peabody Conservatory, University of Richmond, Georgia College and State University as well as her alma mater, Lebanon Valley College. Students in her private voice studio have won numerous competitions and have been accepted to some of the most prestigious music programs in the country. Margaret holds degrees from Lebanon Valley College in Music Education (B.S.) and Music (B.A.) and an M.M. in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College.