Yaffa Ovsishcher is a Russian-American mezzo-soprano who possesses a warm, resonant voice and artistic versatility across a wide range of repertoire. A native of Brooklyn, New York, she is currently completing her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studies under the guidance of renowned soprano Rhoslyn Jones.

In the 2025 season, Yaffa was named the Emerging Artist Winner of the Rochester International Vocal Competition and earned second place nationally in the prestigious Shirley Rabb Winston Voice Scholarship Competition. She was also a finalist in both the NOA Carolyn Bailey Argento Vocal Competition and the Dominick Argento Fellowship, and a semifinalist in the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition.

This fall, Yaffa is covering Flora in La Traviata with Festival Opera. She recently completed the Seagle Festival, where she performed the title role in Carmen and Evangeline Harcourt in Anything Goes. Other operatic credits include the title role in Handel’s Orlando and Maurya in Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea with SFCM Opera; La Reine Gertrude in Hamlet (Purchase Opera); Der Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos (Berlin Opernfest); Der Knusperhexe in Hänsel und Gretel (Purchase Opera); and ensemble in Teatro Grattacielo’s L’elisir d’amore. As a studio artist with Classic Lyric Arts in 2023, she performed scenes as Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito and Cecilio in Lucio Silla.

Equally at home on the concert stage, Yaffa has appeared as soloist in works including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Mass in C Major, and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. In addition to her vocal training, she studied piano for many years and trained extensively in ballroom and Latin dance—disciplines that continue to inform her musicality, stage presence, and physical expressivity as a performer.