Robin McGinness

Baritone Robin McGinness makes music unamplified. The direct connection of breath to vibration to eardrum, with nothing in between, lets audiences into interior lives they wouldn't otherwise experience.

Praised by The Washington Post for a "powerful" and "warm" voice, and by The Baltimore Sun for "impressive singing… well-supported tone and supple phrasing," Robin's operatic credits include Washington National Opera, IN Series, Arizona Opera, and Teatro Nuovo. Leading roles include the title roles in Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. An enthusiast for Russian repertoire, she has also sung leads in The Tsar's Bride, Mozart and Salieri, and Iolanta.

Creating and singing new work runs through Robin's career, from the premiere of Grounded at Washington National Opera to originating the role of Ed Wall in Frances Pollock's award-winning Stinney: An American Execution at the PROTOTYPE Festival. She composes as well: her song cycle Apollo, setting the radio transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission for voice and piano, premiered at Cleveland's IngenuityFest. Other vocal, theatrical, and orchestral works have been premiered at Andy's Summer Playhouse and by Vermont's Windham Orchestra.

In concert, Robin's credits include the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, Handel's Messiah with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Carmina Burana with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and the Brahms Requiem with both The Washington Chorus and the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra.

Robin trained with Arizona Opera's Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Teatro Nuovo, and Bel Canto at Caramoor. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the Peabody Institute, where she teaches grant writing and career skills, helping the next generation of artists build working lives that lead with meaning. Awards include first place in the Sylvia L. Green Voice Competition and the Patricia A. Edwards Award in the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition.

Robin is happily rooted in a 150-year-old Baltimore row home, convinced that the city is the best-kept secret in adventurous art on the East Coast.