Martha Guth

Juno nominated soprano Martha Guth's interpretations have been called “Magical” (Opera Now); “Truly amazing” (Montreal Gazette) and “Thrilling” (Globe and Mail). Her concert schedule has included performances at Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, The National Cathedral, Ravinia, Oxford International Song Festival, Chamber Fest (Ottawa), and Leeds Lieder. Orchestral and Operatic and engagements have included The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Philharmonic, The Santa Fe Opera, The Canadian Opera Company, Charleston Symphony, and The Vancouver Symphony, and she has worked under the batons of Maestro’s Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Helmut Rilling, John Nelson, and Alan Gilbert among others.

Her career in song was launched after winning first prize at both the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the Concours Musical International de Montréal, and it is in this repertoire where she truly feels at home. Her deep interest in the genre led her to co-found Sparks & Wiry Cries with long time friend and recital partner Erika Swtizer. A non-profit dedicated to art song, it spans publication, live performance, and commission of new works, and is the force behind the popular regional songSLAMs. Sparks also hosts its larger sparksLIVE events in partnership with organizations like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Duke University, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and more. Her discography includes Summer Night, a Juno nominated disc of songs by Healy Willan on Centrediscs; Das Ewig Weibliche a solo disc of Schubert songs with Penelope Crawford on a Graf fortepiano; Roberto Sierra’s Beyond the Silence of Sorrow with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico for Naxos (nominated for a 2016 Latin GRAMMY) and more. Her concerts have been recorded and broadcast by the CBC Radio/Radio Canada, the BBC and the WDR in Germany.

Martha is Associate Professor of Voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She has held faculty positions at the Vocal Academy of the Collaborative Piano institute, and at Opera Seme in Arezzo, Italy, and appointments as both Co-Artistic Director of SongFest and Director of its Composer/Mentorship program; Martha has presented recitals, masterclasses, lectures, and residencies at dozens of major academic institutions across North America, many of them alongside long time rectial partner, Graham Johnson. She looks forward to many new projects, partnerships and performances this year which will take her to NYC, Bard, Oxford, Luxembourg, Pensacola, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, and back home in Oberlin.

Updated September 2025