GRAMMY-Winning Mezzo Victoria Livengood Signs with Encompass Arts

Victoria Livengood, the GRAMMY Award-winning mezzo-soprano (a mid-range female voice prized for dramatic weight) whose 1985 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions win launched one of the more durable American opera careers of her generation, has signed with Encompass Arts for management.

Livengood announced the deal via Instagram: "I'm delighted to be joining the roster and family at Encompass Arts, with my dear friend of more than four decades, Kathy Olsen, at the helm."

Olsen runs the boutique classical-music agency. Livengood joins tenors Luis Ledesma and Nathan Stark on the company roster.

What does this actually change for Livengood?

Practically, it consolidates her bookings under one roof with a manager she's known since before her Met debut. It also reframes her calendar around upcoming projects — most prominently Baba in Menotti's "The Medium" at Opera Carolina later this year.

Baba sits outside her signature roles. Her best-known parts include Carmen, Herodias in "Salome," Giulietta in "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," Maddalena in "Rigoletto," and Prince Orlovsky in Johann Strauss II's "Die Fledermaus."

Orlovsky is a trouser role — a part in which a female singer plays a male character.

The career behind the contract

Livengood's 1985 Auditions win predates her Met debut by six years. She stepped onto the Met stage for the first time in 1991 and has since become a recurring presence on the company's dramatic-mezzo roster, particularly in Strauss and Verdi.

Her training followed a standard conservatory path. She earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then a Master of Music at the Boston Conservatory of Music. Several institutions have since granted her honorary doctorates.

What she does offstage

Livengood's non-performing work is the kind of labor that keeps the vocal pipeline alive. She has run the classical-music program and master-class series at Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains and taught on the voice faculty at the University in Bogota, Colombia.

As an adjudicator (a competition judge), her jury credits include the Met Auditions in North Carolina and Boston, the NATS competition in North Carolina, The Queens Opera competition in New York, and the Washington International Vocal Competition.

What it means for Encompass

Picking up a GRAMMY-winning dramatic mezzo is a deliberate roster move. Boutiques survive on headline names, and Livengood's Auditions-to-present continuity makes her exactly that.

For the wider field, the deal suggests that legacy singers still carry commercial weight. Encompass isn't the largest agency in classical music, but it has built around artists with regional audiences and crossover appeal.

What to watch next

Opera Carolina's 2026–27 season calendar will confirm "The Medium" dates and full casting. That engagement will be the first test of how Livengood's new management handles her bookings — whether Babas expand into more Menotti, or whether Carmen and Salome remain the calling card.