Singer
With her versatility and a voice that has been described as “rich and dusky, but so beautifully clear and expressive,” Saskatchewan native Bonnie Cutsforth has established an active career in both concert and operatic mezzo soprano and contralto repertoire.
Ms. Cutsforth has performed many of the lead operatic contralto and dramatic mezzo soprano roles, including Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Maman/La Tasse Chinoise/La Libellule/Un Pâtre in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, and the title roles of Bizet’s Carmen, Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Thomas's Mignon and Massenet’s Thérese. She was a finalist in the American Prize in Opera in both 2023 and 2024, as well as a finalist in the Vienna International Music Competition in 2025 and the BGG Vocal Competition in 2026.
As a concert artist, she has appeared in prestigious concert spaces across the world, including Carnegie Hall (Mozart Requiem), Avery Fisher Hall (Duruflé Requiem), Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Andrew T. Miller's The Birth of Christ), and Cemal Resit Rey Hall in Istanbul, Turkey (Adnan Saygun's Yunus Emre). Concert engagements include performances with the New York City Chamber Orchestra, Altoona Symphony, Saskatoon Symphony, Regina Symphony, Nittany Valley Symphony, the Presidential Orchestra of Turkey, the Cemal Resit Rey Orchestra, Susquehanna Valley Chorale, Harford Choral Society, Orchestral Society of Philadelphia, and The Bach Concert Series of Baltimore.
Ms. Cutsforth’s interests also extend to new works. She was the mezzo soloist in the world premiere of Robert Cohen's Alzheimer’s Stories with the Susquehanna Valley Chorale. She also premiered the song cycle Something So Necessary, So Real for contralto, piano and chamber orchestra by Timothy Melbinger. In recital, she premiered a five-song concert set, Saskatchewan Songs, in which poetry written by the singer is set to music by Kingston, Ontario composer Martha Hill Duncan, and also sang the United States premiere of Triptych, a song cycle for mezzo soprano, piano, and alto saxophone by Canadian composer Lloyd Burritt.
Author
Ms. Cutsforth-Huber is also an active scholar and author. She has published book reviews and articles on vocal and operatic subjects in many scholarly journals, including The Opera Journal, American Music, Music Research Forum, The Choral Journal, The Journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and Classical Singer Magazine. Her work has garnered her several awards, including the National Opera Association Outstanding Dissertation Award for her dissertation, “The Operas of William Grant Still." Recently, her article Bel Canto des Wortes: The Pedagogy of Cornelia van Zanten was the winner of the 2026 Richard Sjoerdsma Award from the National Association of Teachers Singing for most oustanding article published in The Opera Journal between 2024 and 2026. She is planning to self-publish a book that about Cornelia van Zanten’s landmark treatise in 2026.
Educator
Ms. Cutsforth has also been recognized by the National Association of Teachers of Singing for her teaching, having received its prestigious Emerging Leaders Award in 2012. As professor of music at Penn State Altoona, she has been the recipient of several teaching honors, including the Grace D. Long Faculty Excellence Award, the Athleen Steer Teaching Award, and the Penn State Teaching Fellow Award.
Audiobook Narrator
Ms. Cutsforth-Huber holds a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the University of Saskatchewan, a Master’s degree in vocal performance from Southern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Kentucky.
Photographer: Josefina Photography