Taylor Raven

Mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven is in her third-year of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at the Los Angeles Opera. This season, she sings Zweite Dame in the Kosky production of Die Zauberflöte conducted by James Colon. Last season she was seen as Annio in La clemenza di Tito, Tebaldo in Don Carlo, and the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel. As a Filene Artist at Wolf Trap Opera she performed Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Concepción in L’heure espagnole. This season she made her Alice Tully Hall debut, appearing with the American Symphony Orchestra for a concert of Bach arias. Upcoming engagements include a debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Grimgerde in Die Walküre and Mother in Blue, as well as a debut at Finger Lakes Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In 2020-2021 she will make a role/house debut as Carmen at Opera San José and a house debut at Minnesota Opera as Angelina in La Cenerentola.

In 2018-2019 Taylor made her Los Angeles Philharmonic debut as a soloist in the Hollywood Bowl performance of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Bramwell Tovey. She appeared with the New West Symphony in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky under Mikhail Agrest and made her Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra debut as a soloist in Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied with James Conlon as a part of their May Festival. In 2017-18 Taylor performed with Wolf Trap Opera and the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, making a Naxos Classical recording of Bernstein’s Songfest conducted by James Judd. She is a recipient of a 2017 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation and won 1st prize in the 2018 Loren L. Zachary competition.

In 2016-17 Taylor made her debut with Seattle Opera as Hannah After in As One. She is a 2016 alumnus of the San Francisco Opera Center’s Merola Opera Program. In the Schwabacher Summer Concert she performed in scenes as Isolier in Le comte Ory, Mère Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites, and Arsamene in Serse. She later presented a recital as a part of their 2017 Schwabacher series in collaboration with Mark Morash.

In earlier seasons Taylor performed as Oronte in Handel’s Riccardo Primo and Hannah After in As One for its Pennsylvania premiere as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera. She was a Studio Artist with Central City Opera in 2015, appearing in scenes of Carmen, Street Scene, and The Ballad of Baby Doe. Other roles include Angelina in La cenerentola, Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea, and the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel. In 2015 she received the Adelaide Bishop Award from Central City and won 1st prize in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition. Taylor holds degrees from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado-Boulder.