“The assertive Mezzo” (Wall Street Journal), Carlyle Quinn has been hailed as a singer of “vocal prowess and acting acumen” (Cleveland Classical).

In the 2025/26 season, she joins the Curtis Institute of Music as a Professional Studies Certificate student. Carlyle makes her Curtis Opera Theater debut as La messaggera in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, sings as the Alto Soloist in Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone, and returns to the role of Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She will also make her Marian Anderson Hall debut with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra as a Soloist in Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The 2024/25 season marked her return to Opera North as a Principal Artist, portraying Marcellina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Aldonza/Dulcinea in Mitch Leigh’s Man of La Mancha. Her portrayal of Aldonza earned recognition from the Rutland Herald as a show-stealing performance, praised for her “magnificent mezzo” that conveyed searing intensity and deep emotion. Additionally, Carlyle debuted at the Savannah Voice Festival as a Study Grant Artist, premiering the role of Angelina in Michael Ching’s Cinderella’s Royal Feast—a sequel to Rossini’s La Cenerentola.

In the 2023/24 season, she was a Resident Artist with Opera North, where she portrayed an “irresistible” Maddalena (Rutland Herald) in Verdi’s Rigoletto. She also performed as Vénus in Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers and Lucinda in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, additionally voicing the Giant and covering the Witch. Carlyle was also a Resident Artist with Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, performing as Cissy in Robert Nelson’s Tickets, Please!

Her 2022/23 season featured a “brilliantly characterized” (Cleveland Classical) Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon with the Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater. She also sang Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, delivering a “riveting death scene” praised as “outstanding” (Cleveland Classical). Other highlights included Florence Pike in Britten’s Albert Herring with Harrower Summer Opera, her Alto Soloist debut in Mozart’s Requiem with the Lima Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Crust, and a solo recital with pianist Matias Cuevas at the Church of the Western Reserve Concert Series. Carlyle earned the 2023 Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition Michigan District and was a semifinalist in the Dallas Opera Guild’s Lone Star Vocal Competition and the Federation of Art Song Fellowship Competition.

In 2021/22, Carlyle performed selections from Bizet’s Carmen as the title role with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra during a vocal department centennial gala. She portrayed Meg Page in an abridged Verdi Falstaff for CIMOT’s Shakespeare, Operatically festival. As a guest artist with Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts Opera Theater, she performed the dialogue role of Puck in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Carlyle also sang Ježibaba in Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Utah Vocal Arts Academy and participated in the Cleveland Art Song Festival with collaborator Lu Niu, working with Warren Jones, David Portillo, Craig Terry, and Tamara Wilson. She was a 2022 Encouragement Award winner in the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition Utah District.

During the 2020/21 season, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carlyle showcased versatility through virtual performances including Oberon, Hermia, and Cobweb in a filmed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Juilliard Opera Theater; covering Arcane in a virtual adaptation of Händel’s Teseo; a recorded Liederabend coached by Pierre Vallet; and a virtual solo recital with pianist Adam Nielsen. She also participated in the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy.

In 2019/20, she collaborated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLive Arts Series, the New York Philharmonic, and Juilliard Opera Theater for Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, portraying Indiana Elliot. She performed a modified Madame de Croissy in the devised production There’s Blood Between Us and sang Mezzo II in Debussy’s Nocturnes with the New York Philharmonic under Louis Langrée.

In 2018/19, Carlyle participated in Juilliard Opera Theater’s collaboration with Juilliard415 for Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, covering the title role. The production toured to the Joye in Aiken Festival, Opera Holland Park, and L’Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles.

She earned her Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2023 with Dr. Mary Schiller, graduating with the Boris Goldovsky Prize in Opera, which honors outstanding operatic performance. She was also the inaugural recipient of the Emma Lincoln Scholarship. Carlyle was accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at age sixteen and completed her Bachelor of Music there in 2021 under the tutelage of Edith Wiens. In 2017, she attended the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie as an apprentice artist, performing in an Operngala with the Nürnberger Symphoniker, a Liederabend at Historischer Reitstadel Neumarkt, and a cabaret concert with pianist Craig Terry. Between 2014 and 2017, Carlyle was a member of the Juilliard Pre-College program, studying with Lorraine Nubar and receiving a merit scholarship from the George London Foundation. During this time, she performed her first Alto Solo in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War with the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra. She continues her vocal studies with soprano Jennifer Rowley at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Carlyle grew up in the Pacific Northwest, discovering her love for opera at age eight. She made her operatic role debut in 2013 as the Shepherd Boy in Portland Opera’s Tosca. She won the MetroArts’ Young Artists Debut Concerto Competition twice, in 2014 and 2016, performing works by Gluck and Gounod with orchestras of Oregon Symphony and Portland Opera members. In 2015, she was the Faerie No. 2 soloist in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Oregon Ballet Theater.