Hailed by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as "phenomenal" in her role debut as Marietta in Die tote Stadt, Molly Fillmore made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Helmwige in the Met’s newest, Grammy-winning production of Der Ring der Nibelungen, conducted by James Levine and directed by Robert Lepage. She returned to the Met to sing a principal role in Satyagraha by Philip Glass. Both Satyagraha and Die Walküre were shown live in movie theaters around the world as part of the Met’s Live in HD series as well as on PBS stations nationwide as part of their Great Performances series. She can be heard and seen on Deutsche Grammophon’s recent releases of the CD and DVD of Die Walküre from The Metropolitan Opera under the musical direction of James Levine and Fabio Luisi, as well as the 2021 release of Satyagraha from The Metropolitan Opera on both CD, DVD, and Spotify.

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Her soprano debut was the title role of Salome at San Francisco Opera with music director Nicola Luisotti conducting. She covered the role of Brünnhilde and sang the role of Ortlinde in Francesca Zambello’s San Francisco Opera production of Die Walküre, conducted by Donald Runnicles. Molly Fillmore made her role debut as Marietta/Marie in Die tote Stadt with Theater St. Gallen, Switzerland in a production directed by Jan Schmidt-Garré and conducted by Otto Tausk.  She sang her first Tosca in 2016 and a year later debuted a second Puccini role, that of Turandot, opposite tenor Arnold Rawls. Also in 2017 she had role debut as Micaela in Carmen, a production for Central Florida Lyric Opera for which she also made her professional debut as a stage director.  Other American opera appearances include Seattle Opera, Arizona Opera, Spoleto Festival, and Washington National Opera.

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Before her switch to dramatic soprano repertoire, Molly Fillmore had an international career as a mezzo-soprano, including five seasons as a principal soloist in the ensemble of Oper der Stadt Köln (Cologne Opera), where she appeared in numerous roles, including Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Romeo in I Capuleti e I Montecchi, Don Ramiro in La finta giardiniera, Smeraldine in L’amour des trois oranges, Mercedes in Carmen, Wellgunde in Das Rheingold, and Waltraute in Die Walküre.  In Cologne, she worked with, among others, conductors Sir Jeffrey Tate, Robert Carsen, Daniele Callegari, Graeme Jenkins, and Philippe Auguin as well as stage directors Christof Loy, Günter Krämer, and Torsten Fischer. Other mezzo-soprano appearances included the roles of Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice with Chattanooga Opera, and Margret in Wozzeck for the Spoleto Festival. 

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On the concert stage, has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall, a Gershwin celebration and Mozart Requiem in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, in the Mozart Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Detroit Symphony, La damnation de Faust with Utah Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Magnificat and an opera gala with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, Isolde’s “Liebestod” at the Interlochen Arts Festival, Stravinsky’s Les Noces at the Great Lakes Chamber Festival, and in the Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël, broadcast on DeustchlandFunk Radio. Collaborators on the concert stage include Gerard Schwarz, Hans Graf, Lothar Koenigs, Keith Lockhart, John Rutter, Norman Scribner, and Nicholas McGegan.

 

An active recitalist, she studied German art song at the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria, where her teachers included Walter Berry, Elly Ameling, Jörg Demus, Helmut Deutsch, and Rudolf Jansen.  She gave a joint recital with tenor Ernst Haefliger at the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn and has been heard in recital in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, China and various cities in the United States.  

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Molly Fillmore made her solo operatic debut with the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center Opera House while a sophomore at American University. She remained in Washington, D.C. for her graduate degree, and by the time she had completed her Master's Degree at the University of Maryland, she had appeared in seven roles (including a principal role in the zarzuela El Gato Montes) with the Washington National Opera and as a soloist in numerous concerts at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.  She graduated magna cum laude from American University and received the university's Evelyn Swarthout Hayes Award, given to the student who contributed most to the arts as an undergraduate. Her voice teachers have included Alice Silverthorn, Elizabeth Vrenios, Dominic Cossa, Marlena Malas, and Michael Warren, and she worked for over two decades with coach/pianist/conductor Alan Nathan.  

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Alongside her singing activities, Molly Fillmore has long been an active pedagogue. While pursuing her Master's degree, she began her teaching career as a voice teacher for St. Alban's School and the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C.  She has taught voice at the university level since 2004, first at Michigan State University, and since 2014, at the University of North Texas College of Music, where she became Division Chair in 2017.   

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