Soprano, Cara Gabrielson, was a 2020 National Semifinalist in The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and made her San Francisco Symphony debut as the Soprano Soloist in Bach’s Magnificat. In 2019-20 she joined the Opera Idaho Emerging Artists Program to perform the title role in Acis & Galatea, Poussette in Manon, and Sister Catherine in Dead Man Walking. Her cover assignments while there included Mimì in La bohème and the title role in Manon. This season she will sing Bach’s Jauchzett Gott in allen Landen with Boise Baroque Orchestra, Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate with the Beaverton Symphony Orchestra and perform a solo recital for the Oregon Bach Festival. Cara also makes a return to the San Francisco Symphony as the Soprano Soloist in Carmina Burana and in Distant Worlds which features music from the video game Final Fantasy. In the 2022-23 season Cara joins the roster of The Metropolitan Opera covering the First Cretan Woman in their production of Mozart’s Idomeneo.

Cara recently participated in the prestigious Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in Castiglione, Italy where she studied under Barbara Frittoli and Richard Bonynge performing the role of Contessa di Folleville in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims. As a Fellow at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival she performed as the Soprano Soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. California Bay Area opera performances have included Norina (Don Pasquale) with Pocket Opera, Elisena (Ifigenia in Aulide) and Jocasta (Le Amazzoni) with Ars Minerva, and the Foreign Woman (The Consul) with Berkeley Chamber Opera. 

As a solo recitalist, Cara has been presented by the Portland Opera Guild and her concert repertoire includes Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Ives’ Psalm 90 conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas (San Francisco Symphony), Haydn’s Kleine Orgelmesse (Boise Baroque Orchestra), Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oregon Ballet Theatre), Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Clark College Orchestra) as well as being a featured soloist with Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Southwest Washington Wind Symphony and Northwest Symphony Orchestra. As the Winner of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concerto Competition she performed Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate and holds awards from the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, East Bay Opera League, Berkeley Piano Club Voice Competition, and Henry & Maria Holt Memorial Scholarship Competition. 

Cara graduated with her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she sang the roles of Musetta (La bohème), Atalanta (Serse), Nerone (Agrippina), The Rose (The Little Prince), Helene (Hin und zurück) and Drusilla (L’incoronazione di Poppea). She is an alumna of Houston Grand Opera's Young Artists Vocal Academy and the Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program.