"The strong cast of graduate student performers was like an energizing tonic... Kari Marie Sorenson...sang excellently as the jealous sister Elisetta."
- Daniel Ginsberg, The Washington Post

"The performance sailed along at a great pace. Best in the excellent cast were Brooke Evers as Carolina... and Kari Marie Sorenson as Elisetta."
- rdp, Opera-L

Kari Marie Sorenson, soprano, is a native of Tucson, Arizona. Kari received her bachelors degree from the Eastman School of Music under the vocal guidance of Robert Swensen. She immediately went on to complete her masters degree in Opera as a member of the acclaimed Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland. While at UMD Kari performed scenes from Falstaff, The Rakes Progress, Die Zauberflöte, The Little Prince, Volpone and Dialogues des Carmelites. In the fall of 2005 Kari created the roles of Lydia and Lucy in the premiere of The Newport Rivals by Kirke Mechem. In 2006 she performed the role of Elisetta in the 1960’s setting of Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto.

In the summer of 2005 Kari was a member of the Ohio Light Opera Company where she performed and recorded the roles of Alice, in Maytime, and Constance, in Gilbert and Sullivan’s, The Sorcerer. She also performed in Die Fledermaus, Iolanthe, White Horse Inn, and the premiere of Robert Ward’s A Friend of Napoleon.

Kari currently resides in Chicago where she is finishing her professional diploma studies at Roosevelt University Chicago College of Performing Arts, studying with Judith Haddon. She is also in her second year as a young artist with Chicago Opera Theater. Last year Kari performed the role of La Fortuna and covered Giunone and Minerva in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. She completed her first season with Chicago Opera Theater as a member of the ensemble in Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict. In the 2008 season Kari will be covering the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni and performing in John Adam's A Flowering Tree.