Courtney Kalbacker, DMA

Courtney Kalbacker, DMA, is a sought-after opera producer/director, educator, researcher, and performer who has recently relocated from the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area to Georgia to serve as an Assistant Professor of Music in Voice and the Director of Opera at Augusta University. Dr. Kalbacker focuses on creating compelling communication and connection, whether she is onstage, backstage, or in the classroom.

As a passionate educator and advocate for developing singer-actors, Dr. Kalbacker originated and taught the Acting for Singers curriculum for Boston University Tanglewood Institute for five seasons. As a Lecturer in Voice and the director of the opera ensembles at Towson University for 7 years, she produced and directed multiple productions each year and led their touring Opera for Children Ensemble, while maintaining a full voice studio. Her private students have attended top conservatories, won national competitions, and sung in major theatres and ensembles.  Recently, she created an Opera Production Apprenticeship program between Opera Baltimore and Towson University, with the goal of giving undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to train with a local opera company.

Currently the Director of Education at Opera Baltimore, Dr. Kalbacker oversees the company’s the Education Programming. In this capacity, she designed and implemented an interactive presentation for school assemblies titled: "What is Opera? A Team!" which reaches up to 5,000 children each year in Maryland. Dr. Kalbacker is also the Executive Director of Summer Music in Tuscany, a 3-week chamber music and opera festival that takes place yearly in Sarteano, Tuscany.

Dr. Kalbacker has produced or directed over 40 operas in the last 15 years. Her experience has included positions with UrbanArias, Lyric Opera Baltimore, Peabody Opera (Peabody Institute), Baltimore Concert Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Live Arts Maryland, Silver Finch Arts Collective, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Oklahoma City University among others.  Notable engagements include reviving Michael Ching’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with new orchestration, directing the short comedic operas Service Provider and The Whole Truth with UrbanArias, Assistant Directing Madama Butterfly at Michigan Opera Theatre, and directing the American premiere of Errollyn Wallen's ANON for Peabody Opera. Her productions have been critical-acclaimed; in 2022 both of her stagings of Menotti’s The Telephone (Towson University) and The Consul (Opera Baltimore) were selected as National Semi-Finalists for the American Prize.

A dynamic soprano herself, Dr. Kalbacker was a district winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.  She sings regularly with the Washington National Opera as a soprano chorister and principal ensemble member and has appeared with Annapolis Opera, Lyric Opera Baltimore, Hub Opera Ensemble, Victorian Lyric Opera, and others. Favorite past principal roles include Zerbinetta, Ariadne auf Naxos; Mrs. Ford, Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor; Baby Doe, The Ballad of Baby Doe; Adele, Die Fledermaus; Mabel, The Pirates of Penzance; and Angelina, Trial by Jury.  Kalbacker’s performances as the originator of the one-woman monodrama The Young Wife (by Katarzyna Brochocka) were highly acclaimed internationally at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and Kingshead Theatre, London, as well as at the 2013 Capital Fringe Festival in Washington, D.C.. Kalbacker also greatly enjoys oratorio and sang in the 8-person professional vocal consort, the St. David’s Singers, in Baltimore for nine years, performing works that span music history: from Hildegard von Bingen to Bach to frequent contemporary commissions.

Kalbacker holds a doctorate from the University of Maryland and completed a Master of Music degree in Opera Performance from Oklahoma City University, a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Boston University, continuing education courses in Vocal Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, and a Certificate in Arts and Culture Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania and National Arts Strategies. Her areas of research include the operatic/song compositions of unsung women of the early 20th century including Eleanor Everest Freer and E. Adaiewsky, along with the study of trauma-informed vocal pedagogy. She has presented at conferences both nationally and internationally including the National Opera Association Conferences, TU FACET Conferences, and the Institute for Russian Music Studies.