BIOGRAPHY

Soprano Emily Sinclair, DMA, is an active performer and pedagogue based in Santa Cruz, California.  Her voice has been hailed as “sweet and strong” and “alluring” by the New York Times. She has performed across the United States with companies such as the Caramoor International Festival, Opera Colorado, and the Littleton Symphony.  In 2023,  Emily made her Davies Symphony Hall debut with the San Francisco Choral Society as the soprano soloist in the Mozart Requiem.  Other regional credits include the Verdi Requiem with Cantare Chorale and the roles of Suor Genovieffa and Nella with West Bay Opera. Upcoming engagements include Les Nuits d’Ete with the Espressivo Orchestra and Poulenc’s Gloria with Cantare Chorale.

Emily continues to be a champion of new works for voice and chamber ensemble.  In 2024, she premiered Mickey McGushin’sThe World for voice, clarinet, and string quartet. Other recent premieres include Carolyn Chen’s The Language of Birds for Indexical and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, David Arkenstone’s The Fall of Atlantis (Korinna), and Chris Pratorius-Gomez’s On the Beach for Santa Cruz Chamber Players. Emily also performs regularly with the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus,  and can be heard on their recordings “The Pulitzer Project” and “Songs of Smaller Creatures”. Emily was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and has been awarded prizes by the Gerda Lissner Foundation and Washington International Competition.  She was in the Young Artist programs at Tanglewood, Central City Opera and Utah Festival Opera, and an Adams Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival.  In 2024, she and her UCSC colleague Chia-Lin Yang were awarded Honorable Mention in the Doug Davis awards for their performance of Davis’s Family Portraits.

Emily received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy, and holds additional degrees from Northwestern University, Manhattan School of Music and Yale University.  Emily was honored to be chosen as a 2014 NATS Intern, where she worked with Mary Saunders Barton on musical theater techniques. She has presented her work at the National Opera Association conference and at the Cal-Western Regional NATS conference.  

Emily is currently the head of the voice area at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she teaches individual lessons and vocal repertoire. Her teaching and research focus on under-represented composers, and she has taught courses on vocal music by Black composers and by women composers at UCSC.  Her students have placed in chapter and regional NATS Student Auditions, and have been accepted into prestigious undergraduate and graduate programs such as Eastman, Northwestern, Manhattan School of Music, and the Bard Vocal Arts Program.   Emily also has a private studio in Santa Cruz, and gives frequent masterclasses and choral clinics in the Bay Area.

Emily’s conducting experience began at the University of Colorado, where she served as Assistant Conductor/Chorus Master on several productions, including Ned Rorem's "Our Town," which won third prize in the NOA competition.  Emily conducted a reduced version of Hansel and Gretel at UCSC in 2016, and conducted the recording of “Sacco/Vanzetti” (Polansky/Seeger) recently released on New World Records. Emily is the current conductor of Santa Cruz’s Fiat Musica and the Temple Beth-El choir in Aptos, CA. 

Emily is also active as a volunteer in the musical and academic community.  She serves as the Unit 18 (Lecturer) Chair of the UCSC chapter of UC-AFT, and sits on UC-AFT’s State Organizing Committee.  With the National Association of Teachers of Singing, she has served as both the Membership Outreach Coordinator and the VP-Recitals for the SFBAC chapter.  Since 2020, she has served as the Auditions Coordinator for the Cal-Western Region of NATS, encompassing California, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii, and Arizona.  

Photo credit: Popio Stumpf Photography