About
Hailed by the Boston Musical Intelligencer as “shining through with a strength and power that matched her character’s presence onstage”, Palestinian-American soprano Amal El-Shrafi has quickly gained traction as a versatile performer in both concert work and opera.
In 2020, Ms. El-Shrafi will be premiering the role of Maryam in the workshop performance of We the Innumerable by Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh with Opera America Discovery Grants.
For the past two seasons, Ms. El-Shrafi has performed on the high seas aboard the Regal Princess, starring as The Opera Diva in the acclaimed show “Bravo” with Princess Cruise Lines. Recent engagements include a return to Mobile Opera as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, several concerts as a soloist with the Refugee Orchestra Project under the baton of Lidiya Yankovskaya, a Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra in Luigi Nono’s Intolerance, a concert with Beth Morrison Projects at National Sawdust NYC showcasing the work of up and coming operatic composers and the role of Antonia in Les Contes D’Hoffmann with Opera North. Ms. El-Shrafi also made her New York Philharmonic solo debut at Lincoln Center performing works of refugee and immigrant composers.
Notable work includes Nedda (I pagliacci) with Mobile Opera, the First Lady (The Magic Flute) with the Opera Company of Middlebury, Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus) with Amore Opera, the Female Chorus in Opera Brittenica’s production of The Rape of Lucretia, Fiordiligi in Mozart’sCosi fan Tutte with the Bay View Music Festival, Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw) at the New England Conservatory of Music, the Soprano Soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra and the role of the Ancilla (St. John Passion) under Maestro Masaaki Suzuki with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of New England Conservatory, she received her master’s degree in Vocal Performance after completing her undergraduate studies in Music Education and Vocal Performance at the University of New Hampshire. Ms. El-Shrafi placed as a national finalist in the 2017 New York Lyric Opera Competition at Carnegie Hall and placed as an international semi-finalist in the 2016 Deborah Voigt/ Vero Beach Opera Vocal Competition. She was named a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions New England Regional Finalist in both 2015 and 2013, and was chosen as a national semi-finalist in the Classical Singer Competition in 2013. She has held artist residencies and apprenticeships with Opera North, Sarasota Opera, Opera Company of Middlebury, the Bay View Music Festival and the International Performing Arts Institute in Germany.
When she is not performing and traveling by air or sea, Ms. El-Shrafi resides in Boston, MA.