Rachel Willis-Sørensen

Operatic soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen was born in 1984 and grew up in Richland, Washington. Known for her diverse repertoire, she earned her master's degree in vocal performance at Brigham Young University before continuing her studies at the Houston Grand Opera Studio in Texas. In 2008, Rachel Willis-Sørensen made her stage debut as the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aïda at the Utah Opera Festival before appearing in performances of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, Wagner’s Lohengrin, and Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. As she became more popular, she made her Royal Opera House (London, England) debut in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Leonard Slatkin. Alongside her many performances, Rachel Willis-Sørensen won several competitions including the New York Metropolitan Opera Auditions (2010), the Zarzuela Prize at Operalia (2014), and the Birgit Nilsson Prize (2014). She continued performing internationally and earned attention for performances at the Glyndebourne Festival in Chicago, Illinois and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as on stages in Austria and Japan. Although she had recorded several albums with ensembles such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna Philharmonic, and Staatskapelle Dresden, Rachel Willis-Sørensen signed with Sony Classical and released her solo debut, Rachel, in 2022, which won her the Diapason d'or award. After several high-profile performances in Lehár’s La Chauve-souris and Puccini’s La Bohème, she released her second solo album, Strauss: Four Last Songs, in January 2023.