Mezzo-Soprano Anna Kelly Signs with IMG Artists for General Management

By Marcus Bennett

Mezzo-soprano Anna Kelly has joined the roster of IMG Artists for general management, the company has announced. Senior Artist Manager Devere Burnett will represent her.

The signing lands at a formative moment in the young singer's career. Kelly is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School's Artist Diploma program, where she held a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation and a Tatiana Troyanos Scholarship. Those two awards mark her as a voice the American vocal establishment has already flagged for attention.

What does the 2026-27 season hold?

Kelly's calendar explains why a major management firm moved now. During the 2026-27 season she joins the International Opera Studio of Oper Köln, one of Europe's established training houses for emerging operatic talent. Her roles there span four repertoire corners:

• Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi's "Macbeth"
• Third Lady in "Die Zauberflöte"
• Third Wood Nymph in "Rusalka"
• Death in Stravinsky's "Die Nachtigall"

The German assignments give her stage time in house-sized roles under a European ensemble structure, the conventional route by which young mezzos build a house career.

She also returns to the United States this season. She gives her Carnegie Hall recital debut at Weill Recital Hall as winner of the 2026 Joy in Singing International Art Song Competition. And she sings Cherubino in "Le nozze di Figaro" with Nashville Opera — a role that has long served as a proving ground for lyric mezzos on the way to principal contracts.

What does this change for Kelly?

The move gives her a senior manager at one of classical music's largest agencies at the exact point her credits cross from training programs to booked engagements. General management typically determines which houses a singer auditions for, and at what fee level, over the coming seasons.

Kelly follows a pattern at IMG Artists of signing singers at the transition out of young-artist structures. OperaWire has reported the firm's recent signings of David Esteban, Emily Rocha and Kiandra Howarth for general management on similar terms.

With a Cologne studio season, a Carnegie Hall debut and a Cherubino already on the books, Kelly enters the representation market with a portfolio most singers her age are still assembling. How quickly the Oper Köln studio roles convert into named principal roles will likely define the next chapter of her career.