About

Hailed as "silvery-toned" by Opera News (David Shengold, 2022), Ukrainian-American soprano Teryn Kuzma is a versatile performer of classical, contemporary, musical theater, and folk repertoire. She has a deep passion for performing contemporary works, and uncommon Eastern European opera and art song. Recent engagements include being a featured soprano and bandurist for the 2025 Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, and performing for the Toronto Bandura Festival in their Bandura on Bloor Concert Series for their inaugural concert in Toronto, Canada.
In 2024, she premiered the lead role of "H'ala" in Layale Chaker's dynamic new opera, Ruinous Gods, with Spoleto Festival USA, where she was lauded for her “terrific lyric soprano” with “an ability to soar to the heights of her register yet keep a mellifluous delivery” (Adam Parker, Post and Courier). As an NYC-based soprano, she's had the immense fortune to work with On Site Opera in NYC as a a cover and performance artist for the roles of "Lieschen" in Bach's Coffee Cantata, and the roles of "Frog" and "Mechanical Nightingale" in their premiere production of Lisa Despain's, Song of the Nightingale. In 2023, Teryn performed her Masters Degree recital, “Songs of Strength” at Bard Conservatory, and workshopped the lead role in Ruinous Gods, with Spoleto Festival USA. She also sang the role of “Celia” in Iolanthe with the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program (VAP), and won first place in the MIOpera University Division International Vocal Competition.
In 2022, she sang in the Toronto Summer Music Festival as a recipient of an Art of Song Fellowship, and was a featured artist in the Lincoln Crossroads Music Festival. She also sang the title role in Leoš Janáček’s opera, The Cunning Little Vixen, with the Bard Graduate VAP, and competed as a finalist in the Carolyn Bailey Argento Vocal Competition in the Scholarship Division.
In addition to her singing credits, Teryn is an accomplished instrumentalist on the 55-stringed Ukrainian bandura and is actively engaged in the performance and study of Ukrainian folk music. She currently serves as Concertmaster of the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America, as well as Artistic Director of the New York School of Bandura. As a singer-bandurist, she's performed in various esteemed concert halls and universities across the U.S and Canada over the past ten years. Teryn privately teaches bandura and voice lessons, and has been invited to perform and instruct at several summer bandura workshops since 2014.
Since the most recent escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022, she has taken part in dozens of benefit concerts for humanitarian aid. Her current artistic mission includes using her musicianship to raise awareness of the beauty and versatility of Ukrainian music. Bandura for the Future came to fruition through Teryn's efforts to set up multiple fundraising private and public concerts throughout the Tri-State area of the U.S.. This project is in partnership with Ukraine Matters, a non-profit organization in California. The structure of the project is simple: to set up private and public fundraising concerts for medical hospitals and medical battalions in Ukraine. Teryn recently completed her first set of fundraising concerts in New York and California, where Bandura for the Future was able to fundraise over 20,000$ for UNBROKEN and SuperHumans, two rehabilitation centers in Lviv, Ukraine. She was then able to go to Ukraine for three weeks in May to connect with the incredible patients and doctors of these facilities and create connections with other hospitals like Ohmadyt in Kyiv, where she performed for a group of young patients. She plans to continue her work with Bandura for the Future and Ukraine Matters for the duration of the war and reconstruction of Ukraine.
While growing up in the diaspora, she also had the opportunity to take Ukrainian Dance lessons and workshops for 14 years under the tutelage of esteemed choreographer Orlando Pagan (Dance Theater of Harlem). Her folk and ballet training fostered her interests in combining movement and music on stage. Movement and dance continue to be an integral part of Teryn’s identity as an artist.Teryn performed for two seasons with The Ohio Light Opera (OLO), first as a chorus member and dancer in 2019, and then "Luisa" in The Fantasticks during their 2021 season. Before the pandemic in 2020, she was hired to sing the role of "Fiametta" in OLO’s production of The Gondoliers, and "Louise" in Carousel, in which she would have performed the challenging “Dream Ballet” sequence.
In 2019, she sang in Hartford Opera Theater’s 10th annual New in November Concert, a festival dedicated to performing contemporary operas by living composers. That same year, she was a featured artist in the Ukrainian Art Song Project in Toronto, Canada. Teryn continues to program lesser-known Ukrainian composers such as Kyrylo Stetsenko, Stephania Turkewich, and Volodymyr Volynskyj.
Originally from Connecticut, she began studying voice at the Hartt School of Music and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Connecticut. She was selected for the UConn Honors Recital all four years of her undergraduate program. Her work at the University of Connecticut culminated in 2018 when she was a winner of the Concerto & Aria Competition. That same year, she attended the SongFest Program in Los Angeles as a Young Artist.
Teryn recently earned her Masters Degree from the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program, where she studied with Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Kayo Iwama, Erika Switzer, and Stephanie Blythe.
Critics Say:
"...soprano Teryn Kuzma was a bright-voiced H'ala"
-Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal, 2024
"As H'ala, soprano Teryn Kuzma embodies sheer innocence, a resonant, emotive entree to this young girl's harrowing plight"
-Maura Hogan, Charleston City Paper, 2024
"H'ala is sung sweetly by Teryn Kuzma..."
-Lynn Felder, YES Weekly, 2024
"Kuzma's Vixen--with a silvery tone and a sassy liberationist attitude that never cloyed--and Kim's mellow-toned Fox evidenced good chemistry; with Bagwell's support they made something magical of their forest love scene."
-David Shengold, Opera News, 2022
"Kuzma has a beautiful soprano voice and showed off both her range and power... showing strong emotion and confidence during both pieces, even participating in a quick visual gag with conductor Paul McShee."
-Evan Burns, The Daily Campus, 2018

Photo by Micah Gleason