Mezzo-soprano Megan Buchanan sang her first full role at the age of seventeen, as Ottavia in an English production of Monteverdi's opera L'incoronazione di Poppea. She has also sung such roles as Hedwige (Guillaume Tell), Mercedes (Carmen), and Natura (La Calisto) in scene programs with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Opera Workshop, as well as chorus in the SF Conservatory Opera Theatre's production of Dialogues of the Carmelites.
Ms. Buchanan has returned to her hometown of Davis, California in 2013 and again in 2015 to sing the alto solos in Handel's Messiah with the combined choirs of Davis Senior High School. An alumna of the class of 2009, she sang with the Davis High School Madrigals all three years of high school.
In March of 2013, Ms. Buchanan gave her Senior Vocal Recital, which included a variety of repertoire, from Britten's A Charm of Lullabies to Cruda sorte from Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri. It also included several Brahms lieder, Schubert's Der Tod und das Mädchen, and Debussy's Trois chansons de Bilitis. This was her third public recital; in the past she has sung Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade, the aria Va! laisse couler mes larmes from Massenet's Werther, and Purcell's When I am laid in earth from the opera Dido and Aeneas, among others.
Ms. Buchanan got her start with music in a children's choir at the age of five, and continued to sing with choirs for twelve years, earning the position of section leader and then student director in her final year of high school. As a member of the DHS Madrigals, Ms. Buchanan was fortunate enough to travel to Los Angeles and New York to participate in master classes with instructors from Julliard and UCLA, the composer Eric Whitacre, and even a representative of the Metropolitan Opera – Eugene Sirotkine – for whom she sang in a solo master class. She has also worked with Katherine Jolly – a winner of the 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals – and Ithaca College opera coach Blaise Bryski.
In 2013, Ms. Buchanan graduated with her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Jane Randolph, with whom she continues to work. While at the Conservatory, she had the pleasure of working with many talented instructors, including directors Rick Harrell, Heather Matthews, and Kathryn Cathcart, conductor Curt Pajer, and coaches Darryl Cooper and Kevin Korth; she also studied vocal pedagogy with Rebecca Plack, who had been her voice teacher throughout high school.
A great lover of etymology and linguistics, she has taken four years of Spanish, one of Italian, three of French, and two of German. She has also taken many courses on diction and phonetics from Marcie Stapp while attending the Conservatory, as well as classes in both acting and dancing.
Photos by Two Twenty Photos