Performance Year: 2018, 2025
Jennifer Johnson Cano has garnered critical acclaim for performances of both new and standard repertoire, lauded by the New York Times for her “rich-toned mezzo-soprano” voice and by Opera News as a “matchless interpreter of contemporary opera.”
She has appeared in more than 100 performances on the stage at The Metropolitan Opera since her debut in the 2009-2010 season, most recently in the roles of Nicklausse, Emilia, Hansel, and Meg Page. Cano debuted the role of Virginia Woolf in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra about which The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “Every word was clear both in content and intention, and her mezzo-soprano tone was deeply alluring.”
Cano undertakes a balance of orchestral, opera, and chamber music performances each season. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic in both New York and Vail, Pittsburgh Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and Atlanta Symphony. Her 2023-2024 season highlights include performances as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff at Houston Grand Opera, appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Dallas, Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Bravo! Vail Festival Chorus. In the summer of 2024, she inaugurated the role of Michele in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’s The Righteous with Santa Fe Opera.
Highlights of Cano’s operatic career have included performing the roles of Donna Elvira, Carmen, and Offred with the Boston Lyric Opera; The Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen with the Cleveland Orchestra; the Mother, Dragonfly, and the Squirrel in L’enfant et les sortilèges with the San Francisco Symphony; performances of El Niño with John Adams and the London Symphony Orchestra; Carmen with the New Orleans Opera; and Orphée with the Des Moines Metro Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Other recent roles have included Mother Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites with Houston Grand Opera; Judith in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Roanoke Opera; Donna Elvira with the Atlanta Opera; and Celeste in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’s Castor and Patience with Cincinnati Opera.
Ms. Cano joined the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera after winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Among her honors are Winner of the Young Concert Artist International Auditions, a Sara Tucker Study Grant, a Richard Tucker Career Grant, and a George London Award.
