Elijah McCormack, male soprano, has garnered praise for his “pristine clarity” (Artburst Miami) and “cool control and warmth of tone” (Washington Post). A versatile singer as both a soloist and a choral artist, he specializes primarily in early music, with frequent forays into new music.
McCormack performs as a soprano soloist with a variety of early music organizations, including Washington Bach Consort, American Bach Soloists, Dallas Bach Society, Newberry Consort, Upper Valley Baroque, Ars Lyrica Houston, and more. He is featured as the soprano soloist on Dallas Bach Society’s 2026 album of Bach’s St. John Passion, produced by Onyx Classics. In 2023, he made his European debut as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany.
A lifelong lover of opera as well as concert works, he recently sang the role of Semira in the North American premiere of Vinci’s Artaserse with Haymarket Opera Company; this performance can also be heard on the 2026 album of the same name, produced by Cedille Records. Other opera credits include Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas with Opera Lafayette, Telemachus in The Return of Ulysses with IN Series, Amore and Valletto in Haymarket Opera Company’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Miles in IlluminArts Miami’s The Turn of the Screw. As a transgender singer always interested in gender-expansive casting, he also premiered the role of Bell[x] Cohen in Benjamin P. Wenzelberg’s NIGHTTOWN with Lowell House Opera.
An increasingly sought-after choral artist, McCormack performs with GRAMMY award-winning and nominated organizations such as Conspirare, Seraphic Fire, The Crossing, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, as well as Ensemble Altera and Aeternum Choir. He is featured as a soloist on two Ensemble Altera albums, The Lamb’s Journey and Feminine Voices at Christmas.
In 2024, McCormack was the first place winner and audience favorite of the 11th Handel Aria Competition. In 2023, he 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.
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.
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 during his entire undergraduate career, he earned his B.S. in Studio Art with a concentration in painting, which he still puts to use, taking pet portraits commissions and instructing at paint bars when time allows.
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 work with various church choirs, especially enjoying Tudor music and other early modern polyphonic works.