Elijah McCormack, male soprano, has garnered praise for his “pristine clarity” (Artburst Miami) and “luminosity” of tone (Washington Post). A versatile singer, he specializes primarily in early music, with frequent forays into new music. He has performed as a soprano soloist and ensemble member with organizations such as Seraphic Fire, The Crossing, Washington Bach Consort, American Bach Soloists, Dallas Bach Society, and Ensemble Altera, as well as with Schola Cantorum Syracuse as a mezzo. He has performed as a soloist in major works such as Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and B Minor Mass, and Mozart’s Requiem. A lifelong lover of opera as well as concert works, he most recently sang Amore and Valletto in Haymarket Opera Company’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. Other opera credits include Miles in IlluminArts Miami’s The Turn of the Screw and Tolomeo in Indiana University Opera Theater’s Giulio Cesare. As a transgender singer, he premiered the gender-expansive role of Bell* Cohen in Benjamin P. Wenzelberg’s NIGHTTOWN with Lowell House Opera.

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In 2023, McCormack received the Meyerson/Zwanger Award for 2nd place in the Oratorio Society of New York’s Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition. He was a finalist for the Grand Rapids Symphony’s Linn Maxwell Keller Bach Award in 2022, and a semifinalist in Le Poème Harmonique’s Corneille Competition in 2019. He has also won two Judges’ Encouragement Awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and one from the Heida Hermanns International Voice Competition.

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Mr. McCormack has been featured as a young artist at the Boston Early Music Festival and the American Bach Soloists Academy. He graduated from Indiana University's Historical Performance Institute in 2019 with a Master's of Music. During his time there, he appeared in Indiana University Opera Theater's Giulio Cesare (Tolomeo), as a soprano soloist in the HPI's performance of Bach's St. John Passion directed by John Butt, and as the Dewman in IU Opera's Hansel and Gretel. He studied with Steven Rickards.

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Mr. McCormack completed his Bachelor's degree at Skidmore College in 2016, where he studied with Sylvia Stoner-Hawkins and made his role debut as Arsamenes in Handel's Serse. Although he studied music for his entire undergraduate career, he earned his B.S. in Studio Art with a concentration in painting, which he still puts to use.

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Mr. McCormack received a large part of his musical education before age 18, singing with a treble church choir in the tradition of the Royal School of Church Music. He continues to regularly work with church choirs and other vocal ensembles, especially enjoying Tudor music and other early modern polyphonic works.