With “much elegance and youthful tone” (Financial Times), mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey is increasingly lauded for her powerful stage presence and as “a complete dramatic presence with a voice as lustrous as it is molten” (Opera Magazine). Shining brightly when faced with a complex character, she has been praised by The Times for a voice of “dusky focus and hypnotic allure.”
Highlights of Hankey’s 2025-2026 season include house debuts with Staatsoper Berlin, where she sings the role of La muse/Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing as Erika in concert version of Barber’s Vanessa. She appears in four productions with Wiener Staatsoper, singing the role of Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier for productions in Vienna and on tour in Tokyo, Japan. She also performs with the company as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in Monte Carlo, and as Der Komponist in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in Vienna. She reprises the role of Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne Festival to close her opera season. In concert, she appears at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, and in two recital performances with pianist Myra Huang: with Art Song Chicago and in her Cal Performances debut in Berkeley, California.
During the 2024-2025 season, Hankey made highly anticipated debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in Mozart's Idomeneo, and with New National Theatre Tokyo in the title role of Carmen. Following critically acclaimed performances as Octavian in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera production of Der Rosenkavalier, Hankey reprised the role in a return to Bayerische Staatsoper, where she also performed as Donna Elvira in a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, part of the 2025 Munich Opera Festival. In concert, Hankey was featured in a recital with pianist Myra Huang at The Kennedy Center, presented by Vocal Arts DC.
The 2023-2024 season sparkled with debuts at London's Royal Opera House, where Hankey sang the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte; at Detroit Opera in the role of the Fox in Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen; and in a role debut as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She returned to Opernhaus Zürich for director Kirill Serebrennikov’s revival of Così fan tutte, where she sang the role of Dorabella; performed as a featured soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; and appeared in recitals at Antwerp LiedFest and in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Hankey’s soaring 2022-2023 season established her status in the operatic world when she appeared as Octavian in The Metropolitan Opera’s Der Rosenkavalier, including a Live in HD cinema broadcast, and made her role and house debut as Mélisande in a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande by Netia Jones at Santa Fe Opera. She performed as Federico García Lorca in a new production of Golijov’s Ainadamar at Scottish Opera and made her house debut as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel at Lyric Opera of Chicago, before reprising the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte at Palm Beach Opera.
Equally at home in classical repertoire and new music, Hankey has a longstanding relationship with composer David Herzberg, with whom she co-developed the title role in The Rose Elf, as well as The Fairy Prince in The Wake World, both of which received considerable praise through multiple workshops, premieres, and recordings. She also has been involved in numerous world premieres including productions with Opera Philadelphia and The Metropolitan Opera.
Hankey made significant house and role debuts during the 2021-2022 season at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona as Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, Dorabella at San Diego Opera, and Ruggiero in Glyndebourne Festival’s new production of Alcina. She made her role debut as Prince Charmant in Cendrillon at the Metropolitan Opera, and her house debut in the same role at the Opéra de Paris, before returning to Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, a role which she debuted to critical acclaim in the new production by Barrie Kosky, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.
More About Samantha Hankey
From 2019-2021, Hankey held a Fest contract at the Bayerische Staatsoper, where she made notable appearances as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Wellgunde in Das Rheingold, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and Carmen in Marina Abramović’s new production of 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the Opernfestspiele. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Pantalis in Mefistofele, and returned to The Met for Adriana Lecouvreur, Carmen, Das Rheingold, Götterdämmerung, and Rigoletto, debuting a myriad of named roles within a single season. Other recent house debuts include Opernhaus Zürich, Den Norske Opera, The Dallas Opera, and Grand Théâtre de Genève.
On the concert stage, Hankey has performed the title role in Handel’s Agrippina with Il Pomo d’Oro in Turku, Finland, where she was praised by Turun Sanomat for her “marvelously rich mezzo.” She has also appeared at the Bard Festival in Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène, at Carnegie Hall in Handel’s Messiah, in solo recital at London’s Wigmore Hall with Malcolm Martineau, and on leading New York City stages including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Brian Zeger.
Hankey’s career includes awards in numerous national and international competitions. In 2018, she won both First Prize and the Media Prize at the inaugural Glyndebourne Cup. The same year, she took home multiple prizes at the Operalia Competition, winning top awards in the general division as well as the Birgit Nilsson Prize for her interpretation of the work of Richard Strauss. In 2018, she also received a Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, following an earlier 2016 award of a Sara Tucker Study Grant. In 2017, she was named a Grand Finals Winner by the Metropolitan Opera National Council, took First Prize in the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, and received a Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship in the foundation’s final year.
Hankey is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and was recognized with several distinctions, including the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music and The Juilliard Kovner Fellowship.
A native of Marshfield, Massachusetts, Hankey embraced her passion for music from an early age, beginning with her performance in a local production of Annie at age six. She sang with the Boston Children’s Chorus for several years as a youth, attended the distinguished Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and pursued pre-college vocal training at the Longy School of Music and the New England Conservatory.
"ALSO IMPRESSIVE WAS HIS DIANA, SAMANTHA HANKEY, THE MOST INGENIOUS & ECONOMICAL ACTOR IN THE COHORT OF TEN SINGERS.
A SQUARE-SHOULDERED BEAUTY WITH A MAPLE-FLAVORED MEZZO,
HANKEY WAS ABLE TO INDICATE WITH ADMIRABLE SUBTLETY WHEN SHE WAS MEANT TO BE THE "REAL" DIANA AND WHEN SHE WAS MEANT TO BE THE GOD GIOVE DISGUISED AS DIANA."
OPERA NEWS
"OF THE LOVERS, SAMANTHA HANKEY MAKES THE BIGGER IMPACT AS A PUNK-ISH ROSINA WHO IS CLEARLY GOING TO BE TOO MUCH OF A HANDFUL FOR HER HAPLESS AND DELUDED GUARDIAN.
SHE SANG WITH POWER & POISE & Held the attention even on a crowded stage."
PLAYS TO SEE
"THE OTHER FEMALE STANDOUT WAS SAMANTHA HANKEY, EQUALLY GRIPPING IN DEEPLY AFFECTING ACCOUNTS OF "PARTO, PARTO," FROM MOZART'S LA CLEMENZA DI TITO AND JOAN'S ARIA FROM TCHAIKOVSKY'S THE MAID OF ORLEANS.
One admired not only the handsomeness of hankey's rich mezzo, but also its power,
A RESOURCE SHE DREW ON ONLY SELECTIVELY TO HEIGHTEN EXPRESSION."
MUSICAL AMERICA
