Amanda Kohl is a Chicago-based lyric soprano known for her clear, expressive sound and her versatility across traditional and contemporary repertoire. She holds degrees from the Hartt School of Music and Indiana University, where she studied with Metropolitan Opera soprano Carol Vaness.
Amanda's stage work spans opera, concert, chamber music, and contemporary performance. She has sung roles such as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Connecticut Lyric Opera, and has built a dynamic solo career across the region. Her solo repertoire includes Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915; Handel's Messiah; Bach's Christum wir sollen loben schon; Johnson's Considering Matthew Shepard; Mozart's Coronation Mass; and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, performed with ensembles throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Recent solo appearances include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Schubert's Mass in G with the Salt Creek Chamber Orchestra and Elmhurst Choral Union; Paul Weber's Magnificat with Chicago Choral Artists and Chamber Orchestra; Mozart's Requiem and Bach's Magnificat with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago; and Rutter's Requiem with acclaimed organist David Briggs at Fourth Presbyterian Church.
Amanda is equally at home in contemporary music and appears as a soloist on three albums with the classical music label PARMA Recordings—Polarities, Pendulum, and Window Panes. In 2024, alongside composer Shane Cook and pianist Florence Mak, she won first prize at SongSLAM Chicago, a live competition celebrating newly premiered art songs and collaborative teams.
Amanda has a strong affinity for ensemble and collaborative work, which has led her to partnerships with Consonance (formerly Chicago Choral Artists), the St. Charles Singers, Camerata Chicago, and Chicago a cappella, as well as her ongoing role as a staff singer at Fourth Presbyterian Church in downtown Chicago. With Chicago a cappella she has performed Lamentations, Cantaré, and the ensemble's Holidays a cappella series, and she will rejoin the group for the 2026–27 season. She has also appeared at Symphony Center with AWR Music in its live video game concert series, and will sing the music of NieR there in September.
Her collaborative work also includes touring with ReVera, the Spanish-language piano–voice duo she co-founded with pianist Paula Biedma, presenting programs of Spanish and Latin American art song.
Equal to her passion for performing, Amanda brings enthusiasm, integrity, and clear communication to her work as a voice teacher and clinician. In 2016, she received the National Association of Teachers of Singing's Joan Frey Boytim Award for Independent Teachers. She has served as a guest clinician for schools and ensembles throughout New England and Chicago, including the Handel and Haydn Society's Chorus of Tenors and Basses and Chorus Angelicus, and previously taught as Adjunct Faculty at Connecticut College and on the Voice Faculty at the Loomis Chaffee School. She has also created audition-preparation workshops for high school singers pursuing collegiate study.
Amanda currently teaches from her private studio in Oak Park and serves on the voice faculty at the Merit School of Music, where she also teaches musical theatre voice classes in the Alice P. Pfaelzer Conservatory Program. Her studio serves serious singers, from motivated young students to emerging professionals, including singers referred through clinical voice teams—an acknowledgment of the trust these specialists place in her knowledgeable, evidence-based approach to vocal care. She guides all students with an emphasis on healthy technique, musical understanding, and confidence. When she is not in the studio or on stage, Amanda can be found exploring the world by bike or volunteering around Chicagoland with her therapy dog, Rhubarb.