Marysa Abbas is an American soprano who has been extolled as a "fierce creative” with warmth and control throughout her instrument. Ms. Abbas completed the 2018/19 season singing the title role of Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Earlier in the season, she performed in two Chicago premieres as Donna Anna in The Times are Nightfall and as the Opera Critic in Thompson Street Opera Company’s for the sake of narrative closure.

A passionate performer of new works, Ms. Abbas has amassed a variety of recent world and regional premieres, including Mrs. Darling in Lost Daughters and Trevor in the Chicago Fringe Opera production and Naxos/Parma recording of Ross Crean’s The Great God Pan, the recent winner of the 2018/19 American Prize in Opera Performance. She also appeared in premieres for Thompson Street Opera’s The Final Battle for Love, Michal Dzitko’s Soundscapes of Color, an immersive operatic piece that creates an art gallery for sound, as well as Minnesota Opera’s critically acclaimed world premiere of The Shining.

In Chicago, she has performed: Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Grace Ansley in Roman Fever, Miss Manners in Miss Manners on Music, and Virginia Woolf in a staged performance of Dominick Argento's Pulitzer award-winning From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. Ms. Abbas has also been an apprentice artist with Sugar Creek Opera for their production of Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath.

An avid concert soloist, Ms. Abbas’s concert work includes her international debut as the Alto soloist in The Messiah in London, which she then performed at Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago. She has also performed the Alto soloist for the Vivaldi Gloria with Crowder College as well as recently debuted “Here, There, and Everywhere: Queer Themes in Classical Music,” a newly programmed recital exploring queerness in classical music, at Grace Lutheran Church in Wenatchee, WA.

While attending Wichita State University, she sang Valetto in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Maddalena in Il viaggio a Rheims, and La Zelatrice in Suor Angelica, as well as covered Hansel in Hansel and Gretel for Heartland Opera Theatre. She participated in a masterclass with Joyce DiDonato, and received coaching from Samuel Ramey. 

Her Bachelor of Music is in Vocal Performance, and was obtained at Viterbo University under the tutelage of Jean Saladino. She completed her Master of Music in Opera Performance at Wichita State University, where she studied with Deborah Baxter. She has also studied privately with Jean del Santo, Karen Brunssen, and Julie Miller. She currently studies with Alexandra Lo Bianco. Ms. Abbas works as a Managing Diva of Opera on Tap’s Chicago chapter, as well as a producer and drag king in the Chicago area. She is a recipient of the Jessica’s Voice Scholarship, having placed in their 2019 competition.