Megan Kahts 04_26

Megan Kahts

Mezzo-Sopran

Lyric mezzo-soprano Megan Kahts, originally from South Africa, has established herself as a compelling artistic voice within Vienna’s rich musical culture, where she has lived and worked for over fifteen years following her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Admired for her interpretive subtlety, musical depth, and the distinctive warmth and flexibility of her lyric mezzo-soprano voice, she performs internationally in opera and concert repertoire. After years of dedicated exploration of baroque and contemporary opera, she now turns toward the German Romantic Fach, a repertoire that resonates deeply with her expressive sensibility and refined musicianship.

Megan Kahts’ second album for the Munich-based label Solo Musica was released internationally in August 2025. The portrait recording pays tribute to the legendary Baroque singers Faustina Bordoni and Giovanni Carestini, featuring a programme of operatic arias by Handel and Hasse, recorded with the Orchestra Wiener Akademie under the musical direction of harpsichordist Jeremy Joseph. The album was selected as CD of the Day by Radio Klassik Stephansdom and was presented on both Ö1 and BR Klassik.
In the same year, Megan Kahts made her role debut as Rosina with Cape Town Opera and toured Portugal and Austria with the Wiener Concert-Verein in works by composer Nuno Côrte-Real, amongst others, including performances at the Vienna Musikverein.
Upcoming engagements and projects include two Lied albums for the label Quinton with pianist Florian Krumpöck: one recital juxtaposing works by Robert and Clara Schumann with selected songs by Johannes Brahms, and another of Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in collaboration with Grammy Award–winning baritone Dietrich Henschel. In addition, these programmes will be presented in numerous recital appearances in Austria and Germany, including her debut in Berlin. Also in 2026, a portrait album featuring Mozart’s most celebrated mezzo-soprano arias will be both performed in Italy and on tour in concert, and released on CD, with the Orchestra Friuli Venezia Giulia under the direction of Florian Krumpöck. Furthermore, Megan Kahts is preparing her role debut as Octavian in Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier for a complete reconstruction of the Dresden world premiere performance, directed by the acclaimed director Sven-Eric Bechtolf.
Megan Kahts’ debut album In dolce abbandono, also released by Solo Musica, was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik). The programme features solo cantatas by G. F. Handel and Joseph Haydn, recorded with the Carestini Ensemble Wien on period instruments.
Recent engagements include Susanna with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Israel and the role of Ofuku in Panisello’s Die Judith von Shimoda for Neue Oper Wien and the Bregenz Festival.
Shortly after the pandemic, Megan Kahts appeared as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and as Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina at Cape Town Opera, sang the title role in Vivaldi’s Il Giustino at the Drottningholm Court Theatre, and toured Japan with the Morphing Chamber Orchestra. She also toured South Africa, giving song recitals and masterclasses together with German pianist Daniel Heide.
During her studies, she already appeared in numerous roles for Neue Oper Wien as well as for Teatro Barocco in Laxenburg and Altenburg, including Susanna, Despina and Bastienne (Mozart), Tisbe in Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe, Costanza in Haydn’s L’isola disabitata, and Timaea in Ernst Krenek’s Pallas Athene weint, among others.
Megan Kahts was born in South Africa and has been based in Vienna since 2009. She holds two Master’s degrees with distinction in Opera and in Lied and Oratorio Solo Performance under the tuition of KS Robert Holl from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and she specialises in Historically Informed Performance Practice.
A passionate concert singer, she is a first-prize winner of the International Hugo Wolf Lied Duo Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a prizewinner at the International Lied Duo Competition in Enschede.
Megan Kahts began her musical training at an early age, studying piano and music theory from the age of eight. At eleven, she made her concert debut as a singer with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban, South Africa, performing Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate (“Alleluia”). At the same age, she signed a recording contract and released two CDs as a child artist. Already as a child, she appeared regularly with South African orchestras and musicians and performed on various television programmes.
Repertoire

C. Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea (Nerone)
J. B. Lully, Armide (Armide)
A. Vivaldi, Il Giustino (Giustino)
G.F. Händel, Alcina (Ruggiero)
G.F. Händel, Rinaldo (Rinaldo)
G.F. Händel, Ariodante (Ariodante)
G.F. Händel, Giulio Cesare (Sesto)
G.F: Händel, Oreste (Oreste)
G. B. Pergolesi, La serva padrona (Serpina)
J .A. Hasse, Piramo e Tisbe (Tisbe)
J. Haydn, L’isola disabitata (Costanza)
W.A. Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino & Susanna)
W. A. Mozart, Cosi fan Tutte (Dorabella)
W.A. Mozart, Don Giovanni (Zerlina & Donna Elvira)
W. A. Mozart, La Clemenza di Tito (Sesto & Annio)
G. Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina)
G. Rossini, La Cenerentola (Angelina)
E. Humperdinck, Hänsel und Gretel (Hänsel)
C. Gounod, Romeo et Juliette (Stephano)
C. Gounod, Faust (Siébel)
G, Bizet, Carmen (Carmen)
J. Straus II, Die Fledermaus (Orlofsky)
R. Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier (Oktavian)
R. Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos (Der Komponist)
E. Krenek, Pallas Athene weint (Timaea)
Fabián Panisello, Die Judith von Shimoda (Ofuku und Clive)

The German Romantic Love Triangle  – R. und C. Schumann mit Johannes Brahms
The Ladies of Schubert und Schumann – Schubert (Lieder der Suleika, Mignon, Delphine, Gretchen am Spinnrade etc.), R. Schumann (Frauenliebe und -leben), C. Schumann (Op.13)
Hugo Wolf – das italienische Liederbuch (mit Bariton Dietrich Henschel)
Fin de Siecle – G. Mahler (Rückert-Lieder), E.W. Korngold (Five English Songs, Op. 38), Barber (Hermit Songs), Poulenc (Métamorphose), M. de Falla, Siete canciones populares españolas
Gypsy Life – J. Brahms (Zigeunerlieder), H. Wolf (Die Zigeunerin etc.), F. Liszt (Die drei Zigeuner), A. Dvorak (Zigeurnerlieder), S. Rachmaninoff, B. Bartók, L. Janáček

In dolce abbandono – with the Carestini Ensemble Wien (2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 harpsichord):
Handel (Ouvertüre from Rinaldo, HWV 7a), Handel (Armida abbandonata, HWV 105),
Telemann (Quartet in E flat-major, TWV 43:Es1), Haydn (Arianna a Naxos, Hob. XXVIb:2)