EXSULTATE JUBILATE
The highlight of the program’s second half was soprano Margaret Astrup’s performance of “Exsultate Jubilate.” Particularly effective was she in the “Recitative-Andante” movement with its sustained demands. Her voice soared in the “Vivace” (full of life) movement, never losing its purity of sound in the high registers. It was, altogether, rapturous singing.
— Howard Tuvelle, Danbury News-Times

KING HARALD’S SAGA
Judith Weir’s “King Harald’s Saga” — a three act, nine-soloist-and-chorus epic grand opera, compressed into about 12 minutes by one unaccompanied solo soprano — has caught on in America as a concert tour-de-force. I’d not seen it staged until the American Chamber Opera mounted it, cunningly produced by Roger Sulliva and with Margaret Astrup as a protean, effortlessly able soloist.
— Andrew Porter, The London Financial Times

THE WHITE ROSE
Soprano Margaret Astrup and tenor Nicholas Wuehrmann as the protagonists seemed born to their roles. They were instantly believable and terrifying in their realism. Both sang with artistry.
— Bert Wechsler, The New York Daily News

THE LAST LOVER
Margaret Astrup, the Pelagia, caught the tone precisely. Her aria — parallel to the meditation in Massenet’s “Thaïs” entrusted to the solo violin — was movingly sung, and beneath her monk’s cowl her features shone with spiritual beauty.
— Andrew Porter, The New Yorker

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD (Centaur Records)
Margaret Astrup does a superb job of creating different vocal timbres for her two roles as Mother and Grandmother. She’s at her very best in Grandmother’s “My head has an ache,” an aria that moves from hypochondriacal lament to nostalgic reminiscence.
— Arlo McKinnon, Opera News

SONGS OF RUTH SCHONTHAL
Astrup’s creamy voice and persuasive performances should win many new friends for Schonthal’s music.
— American Record Journal

EUGENE ONEGIN
Margaret Astrup as Olga showed a beautiful voice.
— Robert Olson, Opera News

YOEMAN OF THE GUARD
Margaret Astrup was magnificent as Phoebe Meryll… demonstrating a lyric mezzo that could very well move into the heavier soprano repertory.
— Lou Cevetillo, Gannett Westchester

HAPPY END
Margaret Astrup was near the top of both lists (singing and acting) as Hallelujah Lil. Her vital characterization encompassed both sanctimony and worldliness, and she supplied the most distinguished musical moment of the evening — a “Surabaya Johnny” which was a wondrous meeting of confident musicality and dramatic involvement.
— Timothy Cook, Madison Isthmus

IOLANTHE
Tops on my list was Margaret Astrup’s Fairy Queen, whose grandiose declamations suggested a hilarious cross between an overwrought Valkyrie and Margaret Thatcher, but who could also be touching in her song of “true love kept under.”
— Timothy Cook, Madison Isthmus

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA
Margaret Astrup as Hannah is the saving grace of the production, the calm in the storm. Astrup’s “confession” to the ex-priest is so touching, even sweet, it’s all the more disturbing in a play so carnal. Ferrara’s production is worth attending — on the whole and especially for Margaret Astrup.
— Michael Bourne, WFIU Radio, Bloomington, IN

WEILL RECITAL DEBUT
On April 26, Margaret Astrup, an extremely talented mezzo, made her Weill Hall (formerly Carnegie Recital Hall) debut. This was less a voice recital than a dramatic one, and without in any way minimizing Ms. Astrup’s vocal accomplishments, the three sections comprising the program gained from her interpretive gifts as an actress.
— Tony Coggi, WFUV Radio, NYC

MANHATTAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (Music of William Grant Still)
Accompanied by an excellent ensemble (Manhattan Chamber Orchestra), Margaret Astrup’s clear, sweet soprano, good diction, and sincerity made a good case for the material.
— Raoul Abdul, The New York Amsterdam News