Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for “a graceful tonal clarity that is a wonder to hear,” soprano Michele Kennedy is a specialist in early and new music and the winner of the 2025 Berlin Classical Music Competition and the 2023 American Prize in Voice. She has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Davies Symphony Hall, Benaroya Hall, and Tanglewood.

Michele has sung Bach’s St. John Passion with the San Francisco Symphony, the Magnificat with Portland Baroque Orchestra, and the Mass in B minor with Cantata Collective; Handel’s Messiah with Trinity Wall Street and The Thirteen; and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Washington Bach Consort. A champion of new music, she has premiered works with Seraphic Fire, Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, The Crossing, and the New York Philharmonic, toured Julia Wolfe’s Her Story with Lorelei Ensemble and five major American orchestras, and created the role of Eurydice in the world premiere of Anne Hege’s The Glance.

Her recordings include In Her Hands with AGAVE, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with The Thirteen and Dark Horse Consort, and the Lisette Project’s exploration of Haitian song. In 2026–27 she sings Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Classical Uprising and Handel’s Messiah with the Handel Choir of Baltimore, and appears with Seraphic Fire, Upper Valley Baroque, Gotham Early Music Scene, and Ensemble Veritas. A native Californian, Michele studied at Yale University, the Yale School of Music, and New York University.

Hold On (from In Her Hands)

AGAVE | In Her Hands (recording)

“The tone is set by an inspired reading of ’Hold On,’ brought to exquisite realization by Kennedy and AGAVE’s strings…”

— textura.org

CACCINI

La liberazione di Ruggiero “La Sirena”

Les Délices | “Women in Music” | Salon

“A siren’s aria from [Francesca Caccini’s] La liberazione di Ruggiero, sung with seductive strophic urgency by the excellent and engaging soprano Michele Kennedy, whets the appetite for more.”

— San Francisco Classical Voice

PRICE

Sunset, Night, and To My Little Son (from In Her Hands)

AGAVE | In Her Hands (recording)

“The lush soundscapes of ’Sunset,’ ’Night,’ and ’To My Little Son’ — all by Florence Price — are perfectly resonant in the acoustic of the First Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo, Calif. and are rendered delicately by the pair.”

— Early Music America

PURCELL

King Arthur “Cupid”

American Bach Soloists

“Soprano Michele Elizabeth Kennedy’s graceful tonal clarity was a wonder to hear.”

— The San Francisco Chronicle

SIEGEL

I Will Tell You the Truth About This, I Will Tell You All About It

Aaron Siegel | Experiments in Opera/Songs of Solomon | National Sawdust, New York · 2019 (world premiere)

“Kennedy’s fluid soprano was graceful and lithe.”

— Brin Solomon, National Sawdust

“Kennedy’s impassioned and florid descant … sounded at once ancient and eternal.”

— Brin Solomon, National Sawdust

STROZZI

L’Eraclito amoroso (from In Her Hands)

AGAVE | In Her Hands (recording)

“Barbara Strozzi’s heartrending ’L’Eraclito amoroso’ brings out the soprano’s flair for the dramatic, with effortless register leaps encompassing the huge range of emotion.”

— Early Music America

GENERAL

The Songbird — Folger Consort (solo recital debut; music of Francesca Caccini & Barbara Strozzi)

“…It quickly became clear that Kennedy has a lovely voice, well controlled and agreeably warm.”

— The Washington Post

AGAVE | In Her Hands (recording)

“Versatility must be Kennedy’s middle name, as the singer shows herself to be as adept at delivering the songs by Bonds and Price as a formal classical setting such as the graceful sacred cantata In braccio di Maria by seventeenth-century composer Antonia Padoani Bembo.”

— textura.org

“a stirring intimacy…[the album] showcases Kennedy’s diverse range and power... [Her] execution is flawless, and her ability to handle Baroque and Haitian ideas with meticulousness and purposeful tension creates a very inviting atmosphere.”

— Tom Haugen, Take Effect