American mezzo-soprano Cierra Byrd, who is making her Philadelphia Orchestra debut with tonight’s concert, is in her third year in the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. This season she performs at the Met as Woman of Crete in Mozart’s Idomeneo. Last season, she made her Met debut as Bertha in the historic production of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Ms. Byrd appeared in Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with the Baltimore Symphony under the baton of Marin Alsop. Notable accolades include the Wilson Vocal Award, the Peabody Institute’s Artist Excellence Award, and the British Art Song Society Competition in London. She is a recent graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Margaret Baroody and Denyce Graves.

Ms. Byrd’s recent operatic appearances include the Princess in Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Lady Catherine DeBourgh in the stage premiere of Kirke Mechem’s Pride and Prejudice with Peabody Opera Theatre, the Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Opera Saratoga and Manual Cinema, and the Governess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades with Des Moines Metro Opera.