KELLY SLAWSON
dramatic soprano
Kelly Slawson is turning heads with her shimmering prodigious sound - the voice of a true dramatic soprano. Possessing a “dazzlingly powerful, beautiful voice” and hailed as an “unforgettable triumph” in some of opera’s most demanding repertoire, her return to opera is proving to be grandiose.
The 2025/2026 season began with a bang as Kelly sang the title role in Richard Strauss’ SALOME with Union Avenue Opera, garnering rave reviews and widespread enthusiasm as a singer to follow. Kelly continues her journey with Strauss, taking on his most challenging soprano role, ELEKTRA, with Dramatic Voices Midwest in 2026. In the 2024/2025 season, Kelly made her dramatic soprano debut singing the title role of TURANDOT with St. Petersburg Opera Company to much acclaim.
She is a proud grantee of the Olga Forrai Foundation and was a finalist in the 2024 and 2022 Wagner Society of New York Annual Singers' Competition, where she received grants from the judges' panel for her performances.
Prior to the pandemic, Ms Slawson appeared as Snow White in Disenchanted with Stray Dog Theatre, Florencia in Florencia en al Amazonas with Tulsa Opera, Elettra in Princeton Opera Alliance’s Idomeneo, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Lawrence Opera Theatre. She spent two seasons as an Apprentice Artist with Bel Canto at Caramoor at the Caramoor International Music Festival (2015-2016) and at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City (2011-2012), as well as appearing as a studio artist at Central City Operain 2011.
During her apprenticeship at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Kelly covered Pat Nixon in Nixon in China, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Lìu in Turandot.
An avid performer, Ms Slawson has been engaged as a multi-genre crossover artist, comfortable with contemporary, musical theater, and modern works.
Videos
REVIEWS
SALOME
“Kelly Slawson brings a dazzlingly powerful, beautiful voice to the title role. It’s an unforgettable triumph in a real tour de force. Kelly Slawson is simply superb as Salome! The range for this role is frightening. But Slawson handles it with astonishing ease. And her voice is capable of great passion. It's a remarkable performance.”
— Steve Callahan, Broadway World
“Her voice is a powerful dramatic instrument, both silky and powerful. She also has… ‘a good cutting edge’: a necessity for the music of a post-Wagnerian like Richard Strauss.”
— Chuck Lavazzi, St. Louis Arts
“The vocal achievement was formidable. St. Louis’s own Kelly Slawson brought fearlessness and stamina to the punishing title role, her dramatic soprano slicing cleanly through Strauss’s post-Wagnerian textures. The part notoriously demands everything from flights of coloratura to plunges into the contralto register along with sheer brute endurance. Slawson met those challenges with assurance, shaping a Salome who was as predatory as she was magnetic. She infused the role with a heavy-metal intensity — thrilling, unsettling and never bland.”
— CB Adams, PopLife STL
“Slawson's Salome is mesmerizing, moving from girlish curiosity to overwhelming desire and cruelty. Her soprano voice, luminous and deft, makes the character's final descent all the more chilling.”
— Bob von Nordheim, Theartst.com