Mezzo soprano, Marion Pratnicki made her operatic debut in the 1982 Opera Theatre of Rochester production of The Barber of Seville as Berta. Since then, the Long Island native has appeared with over thirty opera companies throughout the United States and Canada, most frequently in her specialty, a variety of over 45 character roles.

In 2007, Miss Pratnicki celebrated her 25th year as an opera singer, appearing most recently as Alisa in Louisville Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor, and as a soloist with Grand Rapids Symphony for Mahler's Second Resurrection Symphony.

Engagements for 2005-2006 included her debut as Erde in Siegfried with New Orleans and a return to Cleveland Opera for Eugene Onegin.  The 2003-2004 season saw a return to L'Opera de Montreal for Le Nozze di Figaro, a debut with Atlanta Opera in Eugene Onegin, as well as a return to Hawaii Opera for The Mikado.  Miss Pratnicki sang her first Erde in Siegfried in March 2005.

Other recent engagements include Le Nozze di Figaro (2002) and Faust (2003) with Florida Grand Opera, Romeo et Juliette with Fort Worth Opera (2003), Die Zauberflöte with the Colorado Symphony (2003), and both Dialogues of the Carmelites and Little Women with Glimmerglasss Opera (2002).

During the 2000-01 season, Miss Pratnicki, who is an Artist Voice faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, as well as the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, sang Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Piedmont Opera Theatre prior to returning to Glimmerglass Opera as Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia.

In the fall of 1999 she returned to New York City Opera as Dame Quickly in Falstaff. For the rest of 1999-2000 season she returned to both the Dallas Opera as the Forester's Wife in Cunning Little Vixen and to Florida Grand Opera as Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin and she debuted at Oklahoma's OK Mozart Festival.

The 1998-99 season found her returning to Opera Grand Rapids as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera, to The Dallas Opera as Marthe in Faust, to Hawaii Opera Theatre for another production of Ballo, as well as for Elektra, and to Opera Pacific as the Marquise in La Fille du Régiment.

Other American regional appearances include roles with The Dallas Opera in Katya Kabanova, Jenufa and Elektra, with Opera Festival of New Jersey in Le Nozze di Figaro and Susannah, with New York City Opera in Falstaff and Emmeline, with The Knoxville Opera in Il Trovatore and Un Ballo in Maschera, La Fille du Régiment in Orlando Opera, L'Italiana in Algeri, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Sound of Music, La Fille du Regiment with Cleveland Opera, Turn of the Screw with Kentucky Opera and Glimmerglass Opera as well as productions with Michigan Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Other companies include Tacoma Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Carolina, Virginia Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Tulsa Opera, Dayton Opera, Syracuse Opera and Sarasota Opera.

In Canada, Miss Pratnicki has appeared in productions of La Fille du Regiment with Edmonton Opera, Candide and Jenufa with The Vancouver Opera and in Romeo et Juliette and Le Nozze di Figaro with L'Opera de Montreal.

Well known for her comic interpretations of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan she has performed Iolanthe with the Glimmerglass Opera, Yeoman of the Guard with The Cleveland Opera, as well as The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance with Opera at Wildwood in Little Rock, among others.

Miss Pratnicki's concert credits include The Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Mahler's Second Symphony, the Mozart Requiem, the Verdi Requiem, Elijah,and the Vivaldi Gloria. She has also performed with The Erie Philharmonic, The Catskills Symphonic Orchestra, The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, The Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, The Grand Rapids Oratorio Society, the Colorado Symphony, and the North Carolina School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra.

Miss Pratnicki has served as a member of the voice faculty at both Indiana University, from which she received her Master of Music degree, and at Western Michigan University where she was Artist in Residence from 1987-1990. She is a former Chautauqua Opera Apprentice Artist as well as a former Opera Intern with Michigan Opera Theater.

Marion Pratnicki resides in Winston-Salem with her husband and three children.

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