Program Books/SOPHIA BYRD

SOPHIA BYRD

SOPHIA BYRD is a recent graduate of the Uni­versity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign’s Lyric Theatre program. They began their career singing with the Chicago Children’s Choir where they were able to perform Otello and Carmina Burana with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti. Byrd has performed alongside artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jennifer Hud­son, Kurt Elling, and Chance the Rapper. Their song “I See the Light” was featured in the Spike Lee original motion picture Chiraq. Byrd made their New York debut in the world premiere of Ted Hearne’s Grammy-nominated Place, followed by Tony Award nominee Heidi Rodewald’s The Good Swimmer at the BAM Next Wave Festival. They were featured in Lyric Theatre @ Illinois and Krannert Performing Arts Center’s production of Crazy for You and played Woman 1 in Lyric Theatre @ Illinois’ production in Songs for a New World. Byrd appeared as Eve in Rev23 at the New York Prototype Festival and played Geraldine in Barber’s A Hand of Bridge. Most recently, she was the music director for Little Women in Urbana-Champaign, released their debut solo album Dyschronometria, and appeared in Hair at Asolo Repertory Theater.