“Iridescent" - Financial Times
“Great stage face and strikingly individual timbre.” - Boston Globe
“Dark and sultry…Rauer's voice is perfectly suited for a modern score and she sang with unbridled passion.” - Schenectady Daily Gazette
Performer
Soprano Erika Rauer is acclaimed for the sound she brings to recital, chamber, and operatic literature.
Recent solo recitals in Eugene, Oregon under the auspices of A² Productions have featured contemporary repertoire including Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi and George Crumb’s Apparition. Other performances have included Messiaen’s Harawi and Schumann’s Frauenliebe und leben. Recent performances of vocal chamber music have included Chausson’s Chanson perpetuelle, Ildebrando Pizzetti’s Tre canzoni, and excerpts from Lekeu’s Andromède with Chamber Music Amici, as well as Ravel’s Chansons madécasses in chamber recital. .
Erika’s upcoming operatic performances will include the role of Maddalena in Rigoletto with Eugene Opera in January 2025. Prior operatic credits include the title role of Salome at Oper Bremen (Bremer Theater) in Germany, Abigail Williams in The Crucible with Opera Boston, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Dido and Aeneas with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Nico Muhly’s opera Dark Sisters with Opera Company of Philadelphia and Gotham Chamber Opera. Her Mozart heroines include Vitellia, Fiordiligi, and Donna Anna with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble in New York City, Dorabella with the Britten-Pears, and Cherubino and Second Lady with Yale Opera.
Symphonic and oratorio repertoire include Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the Franciscan Chamber Orchestra, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major with Albany Pro Musica, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Yale Philharmonia, She recently performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Bach Cantatas 191 and 152 with the Emerald Chamber Players, as well as the alto solos in the Vivaldi Gloria and Mozart Vespers at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts with Eugene Concert Choir.
Other chamber music highlights include a recital of Chinese yage at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Shostakovich cycles “From Jewish Folk Poetry” and “Seven Romances on Songs by Alexander Blok” at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and the New York premier of Hermann Reutter's “5 Antike Ode” for viola, piano and voice.
Erika received professional training as a member of the Young American Artist’s Program at Glimmerglass Opera, as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival for three seasons, and as a Chamber Music Fellow at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from Swarthmore College and a Master of Music in voice from the Yale School of Music.
Producer and Educator
Erika’s values include the importance of access to the arts for all and the responsibility of artists to be active civic participants. She has a passion for the power of the arts to heal and connect us.
As Executive Director of Eugene Opera from 2017-2023, she produced full productions of classic works including The Magic Flute, Tosca, HMS Pinafore, La bohème and The Barber of Seville, as well as modern chamber operas including As One, María de Buenos Aires, Lucy and the little match girl passion, among other events and concerts.
As the Director of Education at New York City Opera, she produced student versions of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland and Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, and managed school programs across New York City. At Carnegie Hall, Erika worked with the Weill Music Institute to bring musical programs to elementary school children.
Erika has nearly two decades of experience in hands-on arts education and integrated arts curriculum design. She spent fifteen years as a teaching artist in New York City Public Schools and worked with non-profits including Dreamyard, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Highbridge Voices.
Her passion for community arts engagement led to the founding of the Community Arts Collaborative at UNC-Greensboro. There, she developed programs in community-engaged arts practice and taught undergraduate courses in Arts for Social Change, Arts and Wellness and Systems Thinking.
She recently completed Master of Social Work at Portland State University and currently works as a Child/Family Therapist in Springfield, Oregon at the Riverview Center for Growth.
Media
Chausson - Chanson perpetuelle, recorded June 2021.
Pizzetti - La pesca dell’anello, recorded June 2021.