American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen is known for her diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart to Wagner. A regular guest at the leading opera houses around the world, Le Monde enthused, “…the American soprano has without a doubt one of the most impressive voices in the opera world. The timbre, of marmoreal beauty, is striking, the projection telluric…”

Ms. Willis-Sørensen opens the 2021/22 season with a concert in San Francisco. This season finds her performing three roles at Wiener Staatsoper: her role debut as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, a return to the role of Marguerite in Faust, and Roselinde in Die Fledermaus. Returning to Semperoper Dresden, she then performed Mimì in La bohème. In the spring, she sang Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes at Bayerische Staatsoper, Elsa in Lohengrin at the Oper Frankfurt, and the title role of Rusalka with NDR Hamburg. On the concert stage, this season’s engagements include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at Santa Cecilia in Rome, Verdi’s Requiem at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. In 2021, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, signed a multi-record deal with Sony Classical. Her debut album, Rachel, was released on April 8th, 2022.

Previous engagements included Rusalka at the San Francisco Opera, Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier) at Glyndebourne, Semperoper Dresden and the Royal Opera House; Violetta (La Traviata) at Opéra national de Bordeaux; Marguerite (Faust) as part of the Royal Opera House’s tour of Japan; Elsa (Lohengrin) at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Opernhaus Zürich; Mimì (La bohème) at the Bayerische Staatsoper; the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Metropolitan Opera and Wiener Staatsoper; Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Wiener Staatsoper, Houston Grand Opera, and Semperoper Dresden; Hélène (Les Vêpres siciliennes) at the Bayerische Staatsoper; Valentine (Les Huguenots) at the Grand Théâtre Genève; Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) at the San Francisco Opera and the Royal Opera House; Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Staatskapelle Dresden; Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Houston Grand Opera; Leonore (Fidelio) at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia; and Leonora (Il Trovatore) at the Teatro Regio di Torino and Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Equally at home on the concert stage, she has performed Strauss’ Four Last Songs multiple times, including notably at Buckingham Palace for an HRH Prince Charles birthday celebration, and joined Jonas Kaufmann in 2019 and 2020 for a multi-city European tour in support of his latest recording, Wien, on which she is featured. Other repertoire includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,  Mahler’s 4th and 8th Symphonies, Mendelssohn’s Elias, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, and the Verdi Requiem.

Rachel was a member of the ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden for three years, where she sang the title role in Die Lustige Witwe, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Elettra (Idomeneo), Diemut (Feuersnot), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) and Mimì (La bohème).  She won first prize at the 2014 Operalia competition in Los Angeles and at the 2011 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, and she was a winner of the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Brigham Young University and is an alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.