Praised for her “infectious enthusiasm” and “charm” on the stage (BoorAboutTown Toronto), soprano Brenna McFarland is a light lyric soprano based in New York City and proudly hailing from the Washington, D.C. metro area.

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The 2025–26 season brought a series of exciting debuts for McFarland. She joined Opera Neo as a Studio Artist, covering the audacious Fiorilla in Rossini’s Il turco in Italia and the naive Mirinda in the American premiere of Vivaldi’s long-lost opera Arsilda. She also appeared as a soloist in the “Night at the Museum” art song recital at the San Diego Museum of Art, in partnership with Opera Neo. In Boston, she became an Artist-in-Residence with New Opera Company of Boston, was a third-place winner of the company’s Dante Alighieri Aria Competition, and appeared as a featured soloist in its Nantucket Opera Festival. Additional roles this season included the mysterious Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (abridged) at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and the charming Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus with Winter Harbor Music Festival. 

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Her upcoming engagements include soprano soloist in Haydn’s Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo with Falmouth Chorale (Cape Cod, MA) and featured soloist in a gala concert with Riverside Opera Company and the Richmond County Orchestra (Staten Island, NY), as well as a recent soprano solo of Fauré’s Requiem at Church of the Ascension (Upper West Side, NYC).

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The 2024–25 season saw McFarland's contract as a Portfolio Artist Intern with Opera 5 in Toronto. In the new two-woman opera Come Closer by Ryan Trew and Rachel Krehm, she worked alongside the composer and librettist as the Big Sister cover, and she also dipped her toes into the musical theater world in William Finn’s Elegies. Additional roles that season included Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza with Opera McGill.

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Other recent roles in McFarland’s repertoire include Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Opera McGill, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Winter Harbor Music Festival, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, and Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte with Bethesda Summer Music Festival.

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McFarland received her Professional Studies Certificate from Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2026, where she was a finalist in the Hans Lewitus Vocal Competition and sang in masterclasses with Metropolitan Opera conductor Riccardo Frizza and soprano Brenda Rae. She received her Master of Music from McGill University in 2025, where she was a recipient of the Graduate Mobility Award and the 2024 Austrian Society Scholarship and participated in masterclasses with Opéra National de Paris musical director Pierre Vallet, pianist Helmut Deutsch, and tenor Ian Bostridge. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Communications Studies and Vocal Performance from James Madison University.

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McFarland studies with Trish McCaffrey and is passionate about bringing warmth, humor, and theatricality to her work both on and off the operatic stage.