The two real heroes of the week were conductor Richard Farnes and Kelly Cae Hogan who sang Brunnhilde for the entire cycle. In her highly commited performances she proved a revelation, her voice being sumptuous and full, her vibrant tones offsetting an almost metallic edge to her sound.

— Sam Smith - MusicOMH 7/3/2016 (Royal Festival Hall-London)

Biography

Having recently made her London debut as Brünnhilde, American soprano, Kelly Cae Hogan is attracting international attention for her dramatic portrayals in Wagner, Strauss, Verdi and Puccini. Ms. Hogan sang Brünnhilde in Wagner’s RING CYCLE (Der Ring des Nibelungen) for Opera North at the Royal Festival Hall in London, as well as on tour in several other UK cities. She looks forward to more performances in The RING as Brünnhilde with Staatstheater Kassel in 2022 and 2023.

At the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Ms. Hogan sang in Elektra (Strauss) conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich) conducted by James Conlon, and in the Patrice Chéreau staging of From the House of the Dead (Janáček) conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. She debuted in 2007 at The Met as Gerhilde in Die Walküre, and can be seen in the Grammy Award-winning performance released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2012 on DVD and Blu-ray. Kelly appeared in both the new Robert LePage RING conducted by James Levine and Fabio Luisi, and in the Otto Schenk Die Walküre conducted by Lorin Maazel and Donald Runnicles.

Kelly has been seen in the title roles of Tosca, Turandot, Salome and Norma internationally in Japan, Puerto Rico, and Germany, and with various U.S. companies.  Kelly sang her first Lady Macbeth in the Verdi tour de force throughout the UK with Opera North. Additional roles include: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Leonore in Fidelio, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Abigaille in Nabucco and Blanche Dubois in Andre Previn’s Streetcar Named Desire. Early in her career, Kelly debuted at New York City Opera as The Merry Widow.

In the U.S., Ms. Hogan has worked with Washington Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Portland Opera, Cleveland Opera, Nashville Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Baltimore Opera, Virginia Opera, Utah Opera, Birmingham and Florentine Opera among others. On the concert stage, she has sung with the Dallas Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, Montgomery Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, Trenton Symphony, Maine Pro Musica Orchestra, Romanian Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacional de Costa Rica and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice.

A native of Iowa, Ms. Hogan was a winner of the American Opera Auditions and a New York winner of the MacAllister Awards. As a winner of the Liederkranz competition she sang a debut concert in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. She and her husband (composer, teacher and musicologist Joel Weiss) live in Lexington, South Carolina where they share a private music studio. Ms. Hogan has also served on the voice faculties of Indiana University and University of South Carolina.