Teacher

With “tones of pure gold” (Washington Post), Michelle Rice brings her rich timbre and intensity of stagecraft to the work. During the 2024-25 and 2023-24 seasons, she appeared as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Corigliano’s Fern Hill with the San Francisco Choral Society; performed the mezzo solos in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Matthäuspassion with the Messiah Festival of the Arts; sang the soprano solos in rarely heard performances of Schoenfeld’s Camp Songs; premiered Shahab Paranj’s work for soprano and percussion, Iran, at UCLA; and performed the role of Brangäne in a concert performance of Act II of Tristan und Isolde. Before a recent change to dramatic soprano, Rice was hailed as a standout in mezzo repertoire. Career highlights include the roles of Mrs. Grose (The Turn of the Screw) conducted by Lorin Maazel at the Kennedy Center; Dorabella (Così fan tutte) staged by acclaimed comic film director Jonathan Lynn; Virginia Woolf in Dominick Argento’s Pulitzer Prize-winning monodrama From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, performed for the composer; and the mezzo solo in Verdi’s Requiem alongside Sharon Sweet and James Morris. Recent online performances include the role of Sieglinde in a filmic presentation of Die Walküre with Dramatic Voices Program Berlin; a video presentation of “To this we’ve come” from Menotti’s The Consul, featured in a program celebrating Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 88th birthday, produced for the Smithsonian; and Paranj’s entry in Long Beach Opera’s 2020Songbook, Rishe-e Dar Khak.

Rice is the Artistic Director and Executive Producer of Seven Sisters Productions, a company that commissions and premieres new works for the voice. In 2021, Seven Sisters commissioned, produced, and Rice performed a video recital of new works for the voice by UCLA student composers, Song Gallery. In 2022, Seven Sisters commissioned and fully produced the premiere of a one-act chamber opera about Lady Macbeth, The Queen, My Lord, Is Dead. Following the outstanding success of the premiere, The Queen was recorded in the studio – that recording was released in May of this year. The following month, Rice performed excerpts of the score at the 2025 Opera Conference’s New Works Showcase in Memphis, and additional productions of The Queen are being developed for performances in the United States and Europe. Several other works commissioned by Seven Sisters Productions are in development.

Rice created the title role in Clara, an opera by Robert Convery based on the life of Clara Schumann. Of that performance, the Washington Post declared, “Rice was…reflective and confident in both her singing and acting... [she] excelled at dramatic subtleties and pierced scenes with her presence and clarity of voice – especially compelling during revelatory biographical moments.” With more than 50 roles to her credit, Rice has also appeared in such roles as Herodias (Salome), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Carmen and Mercedes (Carmen), the Witch and the Mother (Hansel and Gretel), Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Savitri (Savitri), the Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Mère Marie (Dialogues des Carmélites), Emilia (Otello), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Flora Bervoix (La traviata), Larina (Eugene Onegin), Antonia’s Mother (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Gertude (Roméo et Juliette), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Serse and Arsamene (Serse), the Secretary (The Consul), Anna (Tobias and the Angel), Erste and Zweite Damen (Die Zauberflöte), Jade Boucher (Dead Man Walking), Sidia Gruenfeld (Lost Childhood), Madre Melchora in the world premiere of Carla Lucero’s Juana with Opera UCLA, and the role of Kathy Hagen in Terence Blanchard’s Champion: An Opera in Jazz. Companies include West Bay Opera, Fresno Grand Opera, Opera Cleveland, Annapolis Opera, Pasadena Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, Opera San José, the In Series, Festival Opera, Opera Parallèle, New Orleans Opera, and other organizations throughout the United States.

On the concert stage, Rice has performed the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Korngold’s Passover Psalm; and the mezzo solos in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Mozart’s Krönungsmesse and Requiem, Händel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Schubert’s Mass in A? Major, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Elgar’s The Music Makers, Bernstein’s Songfest, Fonseca’s Missa Afro-Brasileira, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Mussorgsky’s Songs and dances of death. Rice has appeared in concert with Berkeley Symphony, Washington Concert Opera, Monterey Symphony, Claremont Symphony Orchestra, Masterworks Chorale of San Mateo, Symphony of Southeast Texas, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Billings Symphony, Prince George’s Philharmonic, and MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall, among many others.

Upcoming engagements include covering Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw for Opera UCLA and performing in the world premiere of Stellar, a concert work celebrating space science commissioned by Seven Sisters Productions. Rice holds degrees from the University of Maryland Opera Studio (MM) and the University of California Los Angeles (DMA).