Soprano
World
Hailed in the New York Classical Review for her “caramel-toned voice” with a “strong bottom to gleaming top,” soprano Adia Evans has performed with Lyric Opera Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Merola Opera Program and many other United States opera houses. Her season 2026/27 features two major debuts: Ariadne/Prima Donna in Ariadne auf Naxos with Merola Opera Program and the European debut at the Staatstheater Kassel with such a demending role as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer.
A recent graduate of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, she sang in Chicago the First Frida Image in El último sueño de Frida y Diego, Theresa Alvarez in Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners, Girlfriend 2 in Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue, Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, and covered Musetta in La bohème and the Prima Ancella in Cherubini’s Medea.
Adia Evans was a participant in the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, being First Lady in their production of Die Zauberflöte.
She spent the summer of 2023 as an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera where she performed the role of Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the Apprentice Artist Scenes and covered the role of Foreign Princess in Rusalka and the title role in Tosca.
A frequent recitalist and concert soloist, her performed repertoire includes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Händel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
A formidable vocal competitor, Adia Evans was most recently named a 2026 Winner of the George and Nora London Foundation Competition. This season, she also won the 2025 Lola Fletcher Award by the American Opera Society of Chicago. In 2024, Evans was named a Winner of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, winner of the Igor Gorin Memorial Award from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, and Tulsa District Winner and Third Place in the Midwest Region of the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition; she also traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia, to compete as the sole USA representative in the Opera Crown Competition finals with the Tbilisi State Orchestra. She is also a recipient of the prestigious William Matheus Sullivan Foundation Award 2022.
Evans holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Maryland and a Master of Music degree from the University of Tennessee as part of the Knoxville Opera Studio. She is also a proud alumna of the Baltimore School for the Arts.
LATEST PERFORMANCES: “Rising stars in concert” at Lyric Opera of Chicago; La bohème (Mimì) with Borderlands Arts Foundation; Die Zauberflöte (First Lady) in Annapolis; Aida (High Priestess and title role cover) at Fort Worth Opera.
FORTHCOMING PROJECTS: Ariadne auf Naxos (title role) with Merola Opera Program in San Franciosco; Der fliegende Holländer (Senta) and Hänsel und Gretel (Mother) at Staatstheater Kassel.
