BIOGRAPHY
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Mezzo Soprano Madilyn Crossland has a passion for engaging audiences with her versatile voice and her evocative acting. A California native, she graduated with a BM from Chapman University, and received her MM at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under the tutelage of acclaimed soprano Elizabeth Futral.
As a formally trained singer, her voice best lends itself to the bel canto and romantic style. In 2018, she was a soloist and street singer in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, under the baton of Marin Alsop. In 2017, she was seen as the alto soloist in Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. Her operatic scene highlights include the title role in La Grande Duchesse du Gerolstein, Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, Idamante in Idomeneo, Ruggiero in Alcina, and Miss Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief. Full opera production experience includes La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi and La Maestra della Novizie in Suor Angelica.
She is also shaped by her theatrical experience. Highlights include Madame Thenardier in Les Miserables, Paulette in Legally Blonde, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Sandy in Grease, Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast, Olive in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Her performance in Stand Out Talent’s production of Godspell singing “Turn Back, O Man” earned her a nomination for a Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance Elly Award.
Miss Crossland has a passion for musical outreach and education. In 2018 and 2019 she sang the role of Hansel in Peabody Opera Outreach’s production of Hansel and Gretel, a production that allowed her to perform for Opera Delaware. Through Peabody Outreach she also performed in Errollyn Wallen’s ANON on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in 2018. In 2016, she joined Pacific Symphony at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance for kids.
A dedicated ensemblist, she was the musical director of the a capella group Simply Vocale. She has been a vocalist and section leader for Chapman University Singers, Rocklin High School Chamber Choir, Peabody-Hopkins Chorus, and served as a singer and soloist in California All-State Honor Choirs. As a songwriter and cover artist, she has written dozens of original pieces for voice and various accompaniment, cultivating a style that is influenced heavily by jazz, folk, and pop music. Her goal is to provide music to as many different people as she can, in as many venues as possible.
In 2019, Miss Crossland accepted a position in the United States Navy Band Sea Chanters Chorus, the United States Navy’s premier vocal ensemble that performs a wide variety of repertoire in Washington D.C. Upon the completion of Recruit Training Command, she reported to the Navy Band and was promoted to Musician First Class. She is currently serving a 4-year enlistment with the United States Navy Band, where she serves her country by telling the story of the Navy and carrying out the duties that are associated with that cause.