A soprano with a warm, unique timbre and captivating stage presence, Emily Rocha’s past and upcoming performances span Germany, Portugal, Austria, France, Switzerland, England, Romania, Israel, and North America, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall. She is a citizen of Canada, Switzerland, and New Zealand, and she is a 2023-2024 Jeune Ambassadeur Lyrique (Quebec, Canada).

Emily’s exciting 2023-2024 season includes her debut as Gilda (Rigoletto) with Opera by Request in Toronto, a concert at the Baden Congress Center in Austria featuring Regnava nel silenzio (Lucia di Lammermoor) with the Webern Kammerphilharmonie der mdw, selections of Schönberg’s Vier Lieder Op. 2 at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Wien, Cunegonde (cover, Candide) with the North York Concert Orchestra, and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra as the 2023 Concerto Competition Winner, with more to be announced soon.

Recent successes for Emily include an Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition Illinois District (2022), Winner of the 2023 UTSO Concerto Competition with Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, 1st Prize in the Toronto Mozart Competition, and U of T’s prestigious Ivan Alexandor Chorney Opera Scholarship (2022).

She has offered commended performances as Ernestine (M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le…), Cassandra (Disobedience - premiere), Lucie Manette (A Tale of Two Cities), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), and Beth Moss (The Tender Land). In a workshop for the new opera Melancholia (Karlsson, Vavrek), premiering in Fall 2023 at the Kungliga Operan, she sang excerpts as Justine. She has also studied the roles Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito – cancelled due to COVID-19) and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte).

As the soprano soloist, Emily performed in Fauré’s Requiem (Northumberland Orchestra and Choir), Beethoven’s Mass in C (Resound Choir), and Mozart’s Requiem Mass (COVID-19 cancellation, Resound Choir).

An avid supporter of new music, she premiered Emanuele D’Onofrio’s Four Songs after Louise Glück, The Song my Paddle Sings (Larysa Kuzmenko), “One Day” (Emma Moss), Winter Songs (Kai Leung), The Last Moments of Our Seasons (Moss), and “Recuerdo” in the East Coast premiere of Beauty Intolerable by Sheila Silver (SongFest 2022). At SongFest, Emily was a 2022 Colburn Foundation Fellow, performing for and working with esteemed faculty including Graham Johnson, Martin Katz, Frederica von Stade, Jake Heggie, John Harbison, Amy Burton, John Musto, Sheila Silver, Mark Trawka, Javier Arrebola, Martha Guth, and César Ulloa.

Emily is a 2023 MMus graduate of the University of Toronto Opera School, and an honors BMus graduate of the U of T Voice Performance program (2021), under the tutelage of Lorna MacDonald. At U of T, she had unique opportunities to perform for John R. Stratton Visitor in Music Master Classes with Joyce DiDonato, Eric Owens, and Margo Garrett. During her degrees she was awarded the ARIAS Mary & John Yaremko Summer Study Abroad Award (2022), ARIAS All Past Presidents’ Scholarship (2021), the ARIAS Anne & John Craine Memorial Scholarship (2021), the Paul and Celestine Lin Graduate Scholarship (2021), the Mary Morrison Award in Voice Performance (2020, 2019), the Arthur Plettner Scholarship (2018), and the Andrew Alexander Kinghorn Scholarship (2017).

Outside of school during her BMus, Emily was the First Prize winner at the Canadian Music Competition for Voice 18 years, NATS Most Promising Singer in 1st or 2nd year Undergrad Voice, Contemporary Showcase Festival Mary Hildebrand Award, and at the Pickering Rotary Music Festival she was awarded Best in Voice, Star of the Festival, and Festival Trophy, to name a few of her early accolades.