Two-time GRAMMY® award nominee for Best Classical Vocal Solo Album for 40@40 (2024) and Confessions (2022), soprano Laura Strickling was recognized by The New York Times for her, “flexible voice, crystalline diction, and warm presence.” Celebrated for her work performing and promoting art song, with an emphasis on new additions to the canon through her landmark 40@40 Project song commissioning initiative, she is the host of SongCycle – a podcast covering all things song, curated The NewMusicShelf Soprano Anthology, and has performed recitals and presented masterclasses and lectures with art song and chamber music organizations, music festivals, and universities around the world. She created the roles of Fanni Radnòti in the world premiere of Tom Cipullo’s opera The Parting with Music of Remembrance and the evil Dr. Slade in the serial television-style opera film, Everything for Dawn with Experiments in Opera.

Her, “powerful and expressive voice across a large range, her variety of timbre and character,” (Classical Scene), make her a welcome guest soloist for oratorio, concert, and chamber works – from Bach to Britten and beyond. Her solo appearances include Petite messe solennelle(Rossini) at Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s May Festival, Fourth Symphony (Mahler) with Knoxville Symphony, San Antonio Philharmonic, and Rockford Symphony, Peer Gynt (Grieg) with Elgin Symphony, Ninth Symphony (Beethoven) with the Seattle Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, and Elgin Symphony, Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini) with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra May Festival, Bachianas Brazileiras(Villa-Lobos) with the San Antonio Philharmonic, Messiah (Handel) with the Indianapolis Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, and Syracuse Symphony, Gloria (Poulenc) with Asheville Symphony, Requiem (Fauré) with Elgin Symphony, Mass in c minor (Mozart) with Richmond Symphony, Cathedral Choral Society, and Berkshire Choral International, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Barber) with Norwalk Symphony and Mexicoliederfest, Exsultate, jubilate (Mozart) with Cathedral Choral Society, Marietta’s Lied (Korngold) with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Luonnotar (Sibelius) and Les Illuminations (Britten) with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg) with the Chiarina Chamber Players and Picosa.

BRAHMS | Requiem | Bel Canto Chorus and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra | Richard Hynson, cond.

"...clear, silvery sound and lyricism..." — Elaine Schmidt, TapMilwaukee

BRITTEN | Les Illuminations | Tanglewood Music Center | Alexandre Bloch, cond.

"...brought ravishing tone to these brilliantly varied pieces..." — Michael J. Moran, In the Spotlight

"Strickling impressed with her powerful and expressive voice across a large range, her variety of timbre and character, and playful demeanor embodying lighter moments of this song-cycle." — Classical Scene

HANDEL | Messiah | Distinguished Concerts International, Avery Fisher Hall | Jonathan Griffith, cond.

“One high point was Soprano Laura Strickling’s thrilling coloratura in “Rejoice greatly” – the fast tempo allowed her to sing the inhumanly long vocal lines in one breath." — New York Concert Review

HUMPERDINCK | Hansel and Gretel | “Dew Fairy” | Berkshire Opera | Kathleen Kelly, cond.

"...Strickling is not one of those chirpy sopranos that often inhabit the Dew Fairy's role, and her strong and well-focused vocal instrument provided one of the most persuasive wakeup calls in memory at the beginning of Act III." — The Berkshire Eagle

"...offered the creamy, clear, younger-sister-of-Eva-Pogner instrument ideal for singing the role over full orchestration." — Opera News

LARSEN, L. | Songs from Letters | Opera Moderne

"...brought a flexible voice, crystalline diction, and warm presence..."

— Zachary Wolfe, The New York Times

RECORDINGS

40@40, 2023

“40@40 is already gaining considerable, well-deserved notice. Upon its release, it landed on the top of the Traditional Classical category on the Billboard Charts. Art song doesn’t often garner such a distinction, and Strickling’s advocacy for the genre is laudable. She is a talented vocalist with a wide range, warm in her low register and powerful in an impressive upper register. Moreover, her interpretive gifts are considerable.” – Sequenza21

Confessions, 2021

“this is a collection of poignant works, pieces whose words and notes exhibit storytelling at its finest. "Strickling fulfills and FILLS this role, her voice as a siren-chameleon, changing shape and color and nature with total control as contexts switch and emotions bend ever so slightly from word to word."”

 – American Record Guide

"While listening to Soprano Laura Strickling's latest album, Confessions, I was reminded of a phrase she has said countless times..., "Song Matters." Her new CD, available now from Yarlung Records, embodies this credo, that the combination of words and music is not a nicety or luxury, but rather an urgent human necessity.  Both the music itself as well as Laura’s performances have an urgency that’s palpable.  It’s at the same time a deeply personal and yet fully universal statement." – Classical Post

"The first thing that hits you when you listen to the album is the clarity and translucent quality of Stricking’s voice. It washes over the listener, enveloping them in her daydream...Strickling and Schreier seamlessly transition from anxiety to excitement and back to anxiety. Strickling uses her solid command of vocal technique such as diminuendos, ornamentation, and appoggiaturas to drive the narrative arc...Her command of vocal technique is definitely a hallmark of the album which serves her well..." – Classical Singer Magazine

"This extraordinarily expressive and versatile singer has with courageous specificity chosen songs that brim with delineations of her life. Strickling performs with an intelligent combination of restraint and letting go. Her voice is full and lustrous and then bright and nimble as she weaves her way through the four cycles and two individual songs that she has selected. Each song is an individual story beautifully rendered. Collectively they make a strong statement about the status of contemporary art songs and her commitment to them." -- Schmopera

"Strickling’s shimmering voice offers an animation that blends and lifts these songs off the page into another world. These three aspects of composer, vocalist, and pianist create the type of special moment so often sought after in the world of song...The title of the piece, Confessions struck me while thinking about the album as a whole. At first, it appears that the ‘confession’ is one of guilt; be it eating cake and pie, or buying that luxury handbag. However, when you listen to the care of execution that the performers and composers brought to this work of art, it is clear that this is not a confession of guilt. It is a confession of faith. Faith that music and art are what will get us through this pandemic." -- NATS

The Parting: Tom Cipullo/David Mason, 2020

“Strickling… transitions to deeply expressive, secure voice. Her exposed highs are managed wonderfully, with notable beauty. A champion of Cipullo’s music, she does full justice to the music of the role.”  --

San Francisco Classical Voice

James Matheson: Times Alone, 2016

"Times Alone captures the impressive dynamic power of soprano Laura Strickling..."

— Andrew Quint, The Absolute Sound

"Strickling’s shapely, nuanced voicings and emotional urgency in the first three songs has a striking directness. Thomas Sauer achieves some luminous sonorities in the final pair, blending admirably with Strickling’s deeply personal utterances." — Stephen Greenbank, MusicWeb International

New Voices – Brooklyn Art Song Society, 2015

"Soprano Laura Strickling's lovely diction and warm, clear sound bring attractive immediacy to this cycle."

— Opera News Magazine