Born in Houston, Texas, and reared in Greenville, North Carolina, Mary-Jean O’Doherty is an exciting emerging artist who is rapidly making her mark on the operatic stage. A beautiful, young singer of significant vocal and dramatic abilities, Ms. O’Doherty possesses a sizable lyric coloratura of substantial range, flexibility and color. In her short career, she has already distinguished herself in having performed the title role of Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) for Prague State Opera only months after completing a post graduate diploma at the distinguished Cardiff International Academy of Voice (CIAV). Following her highly successful role and company debut with the company, Ms. O’Doherty returns to Prague to reprise this soon to become “signature role” in the 2011-2012 season. Ms. O’Doherty also looks forward to a Royal Albert Hall, London debut later in the season when she sings the Queen of the Night's Vengeance Aria in Raymond Gubbay's widely acclaimed multi-media classical music extravaganza, Classical Spectacular 2011.

The 2010-2011 season saw significant and exciting debuts for Ms. O’Doherty. She joined the distinguished Welsh National Opera (WNO) in a company and role debut singing Naiad (Ariadne auf Naxos) both in Wales and on tour throughout the UK, and she added Zerbinetta to her repertoire in a WNO cover assignment in the period. She also added the role of Waldvogel (Siegfried) in a cover assignment for the Longborough Festival Opera, UK, in addition to making her very important company and role debut performing Lucia for Prague State Opera.

A relative newcomer to opera, Ms. O’Doherty is an accomplished ballet dancer and flutist who made her professional operatic debut in the 2009-2010 season in another central role, Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), which she performed for Opera’r Draig in Cardiff, UK while still at CIAV. Other work in the season included a debut for Festival Opera Barga, Barga, IT where she sang Carolina in Domenico Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto.

The 2009-2010 period also comprised a concentrated time of study and performance with the prestigious Cardiff International Academy of Voice in Wales which she joined in 2008. While at the academy, Ms. O’Doherty worked intensively with the renowned tenor and director of CIAV, Dennis O'Neill CBE. In 2008 and prior to joining CIAV, Ms.O’Doherty worked as young artist with Pacific Opera (Sydney, Australia) where she sang the principal role of Galatée in Franz von Suppé’s Die schöne Galathee. The role garnered high marks with the Sydney Morning Herald writing in part, “The soprano Mary-Jean O’Doherty steals the night vocally, even as her Galatea steals the hearts of Pygmalion…Ganymede…and Midas…” A singer with a broad dramatic range, Ms. O’Doherty also performed Young Heidi in The Production Company’s Follies in Melbourne, Australia in the period. Other roles for Ms. O’Doherty include Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Emmie (Albert Herring), and Damon (Acis and Galatea) which she performed as an undergraduate at East Carolina University, North Carolina.

Ms. O’Doherty is the recipient of numerous international prizes and awards. She received the 2009 Robert and Betty Salzer Award, is the winner of the 2008 Australian International Opera Award, and was a finalist in the 2007 Marianne Mathy Award which included a finals concert performance in which she sang with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge.

Ms. O’Doherty has a Bachelor of Music from East Carolina University in both Vocal Performance and Flute Performance and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts where she received her high school diploma with a concentration in flute. She is proficient in French and has studied German and Italian at the University level.