Episode 63: Maren Maddry
Today, I am honored and excited to have my friend Maren Weinberger Maddry on the podcast! Maren’s artistic journey led her to be a professional opera singer. In our conversation we walk through her journey of deciding to pursue opera and both the highs and lows she’s experienced throughout her professional career. We also chat about the mental, emotional, and physical strength it takes to be a professional opera singer.
Maren shares about highlights such as performing with The Glimmerglass Opera Festival, her time with the Fort Worth Opera, and participating in various competitions including the international Lotte Lenya Competition where she won Second Prize in 2013.
We talk about the vulnerability it takes to be a performer and the importance of taking time to reflect on our “why.” Towards the end of our conversation, you will get to hear about Maren’s new business The Mill and Refill, which is a small batch, freshly milled flour company. She combines her love of food and cooking with her love of building community and bringing people together. May you be encouraged as you listen to Maren share about her journey!
You can listen to the show HERE, and you can be sure not to miss a Creative Impact conversation by subscribing through your favorite podcast app (ie. Apple Podcasts, Spotify). We are so grateful to have you as a part of the Creative Impact community and would love it if you would share the show with your friends!
About Maren:
Maren shares “I’m a wife to Travis Maddry (as of 2018), and a momma to August Maddry (as of Feb 2021) and fur-baby Keen (our weirdo border collie, as of 2020)—we live in San Marcos Texas. I love being out in nature (it’s where I feel closest to God), taking long walks, not a fan of small talk, lover of all things food and cooking, reader/avid consumer of fantasy fiction, and lover of building community wherever I am.”
Most recently—Maren starred as “Leslie Sinclair” in the World Premiere of Companionship, a new opera by Rachel J. Peters, with Fort Worth Opera. She is looking forward to reprising the role in 2022 with The Virginia Arts Festival.
Maren has also appeared with—The Glimmerglass Opera Festival, Fort Worth Opera, Opera in the Heights, Performance Santa Fe, Seagle Music Colony, Amarillo Opera, The Florida Orchestra, Texas Medical Center Orchestra, National Opera de Bordeaux, and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse.
Other notable achievements—Maren was the recipient of a 2014, 2016, and 2017 Professional Development Grant from the Weill Foundation. In 2013, she won Second Prize in the international Lotte Lenya Competition and is featured in the documentary short Singing the Story which documented the 2013 competition. She is also a past district winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, was awarded Second Place in the Dallas Opera Guild competition, and was a finalist in the 2016 McCammon Competition.
BM, Oklahoma City University
MM, Manhattan School of Music
Links from the Show:
- Spring Branch Community Church
- BridgePoint Bible Church
- Oklahoma City University
- Manhattan School of Music
- A.D. Players
- Houston Christian High School
- Houston Grand Opera – The Bauer Family High School Voice Studio
- Alice’s Tea Cup, NYC
- The Lotte Lenya Competition
- Fort Worth Opera Young Artists Program
- Frontiers Libretto Workshop, Fort Worth Opera
- A Song For Susan Smith by Zach Redler
- The Glimmerglass Festival
- Candide
- Kathryn Lewek
- Queen of the Night
- The Metropolitan Opera
- The Crucible
- Jamie Barton
- Annie F. Downs
- That Sounds Fun Podcast
- The Mill and Refill