Based at German opera ensembles for several years, she has worked freelance from 2017, and widened her repertoire from coloratura roles to leading characters such as Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
She has been praised for her convincing acting as well as the expressiveness of her lyric voice, with performances including the Royal Opera House in London, the Bolshoi Theatre and Oper Frankfurt.
[4] After making her Carnegie Hall debut in 2013, she began a European career at the Staatsoper Hannover, where her roles included Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème and Tytania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
A reviewer from The Guardian noted: "Bright-toned American soprano Heather Engebretson is genuinely touching as Charlotte’s younger sister Sophie, skilfully suggesting a teenager disconcertingly inundated by novel feelings ...".
[1][3] In 2022 she portrayed the title role of Puccini's Madama Butterfly for the first time, at the Oper Frankfurt directed by R. B. Schlather and conducted by Antonello Manacorda, with Evan LeRoy Johnson as Pinkerton.