Lauded for her "lower extension that has to be heard to be believed," NYC-based contralto Emily Geller is establishing herself as a singer to watch. 2024/25 season performances include a return to Pacific Opera Project as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, the Marquise of Berkenfield in La fille du régiment with Opera Company of Middlebury, Second Lady in a new projection-based production of The Magic Flute with Tri-Cities Opera and LUMA Arts Festival, Ježibaba in Rusalka with Gulfshore Opera, the Marquise of Berkenfield in La fille du régiment with Opera Santa Barbara, and Mrs. Cripps in H.M.S. Pinafore in a co-production with Opera Las Vegas and Pacific Opera Project.
Her 2022/23 performances include Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff and Zita in Gianni Schicchi with Salt Marsh Opera, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Pacific Opera Project, Benoît/Alcindoro in La bohème with Newport Classical, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Teatro Lirico d’Europa (US Tour).
Equally at home with new music, Emily performed Elder Constance in Matthew Aucoin’s chamber opera Second Nature with Opera Fayetteville, Scholar in John Austin’s Heloise and Abelard with Center for Contemporary Opera, and Wife in Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop with Opera on the James. She garnered rave reviews for creating the role of Sylvia, an image-obsessed Hollywood mother, in the world premiere of Chunky in Heat with Experiments in Opera and Contemporaneous as a part of New York Opera Festival, directed by Alison Moritz and conducted by David Bloom. Opera News singled her out for the "layers of complexity" she brought to her character.
Since 2022, Emily appeared in numerous concerts, including Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody and Elgar’s The Music Makers with Cappella Cantorum, Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with the Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York City, Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem with Taconic Opera, and a concert at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses House with the Rose Parade. Other notable concert soloist work includes Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium and Schwingt freudig euch empor, Duruflé’s Requiem, and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb with companies across the United States. Upcoming concerts for the 2024 season include the Contralto soloist in Honegger’s King David with the Westchester Oratorio Society and Alto soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël with the Putnam Chorale.
As a two-year Resident Artist with Tri-Cities Opera, she performed Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Mercédès (Carmen), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana) and Ines (Il trovatore). After covering Marthe (Faust) at St. Petersburg Opera, she was invited back as a Principal Artist, appearing as Alma Hix and covering Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn (The Music Man). As an audience favorite, Emily returned to Opera North several times, performing Ma Moss (The Tender Land), Hattie (Kiss Me, Kate), Oreste (La belle Hélène), and Mrs. Jones (Street Scene), where she was described as “dangerously close to stealing the show with her effortless comic delivery."
Emily holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory under the Ruth S. Morse Scholarship and a Master of Music in Opera from Binghamton University with a full assistantship.
