Soprano, Cara Gabrielson, was a 2020 National Semifinalist in The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 2018 as the Soprano I Soloist in Bach’s Magnificat. In 2022 Cara joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera in Idomeneo and returned to the San Francisco Symphony as the Soprano Soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana and Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy. This 2023-24 season Cara will reprise Carmina Burana with the San Francisco Symphony, sing Lucy in Fellow Travelers with Opera Parallèle, and cover the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas with Opera San José.

In 2019-20 Cara 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 included Mimì in La bohème and the title role in Manon. As a singer at the  Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in Castiglione, Italy 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. 

As a solo recitalist, Cara has been presented by the Oregon Bach Festival and Portland Opera Guild. Her concert repertoire includes Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Ives’ Psalm 90 conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas (San Francisco Symphony), Haydn’s Kleine Orgelmesse & Bach’s Jauchzett Gott in allen Landen (Boise Baroque Orchestra), Messiah (Handel Choir of Baltimore), Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oregon Ballet Theatre), Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Clark College Orchestra) and arias from Mozart’s Mitridate (Amadeus Chamber Orchestra). California Bay Area operatic roles include Norina (Don Pasquale) with Pocket Opera, Parasha (Mavra) with Berkeley Chamber Opera, Elisena (Ifigenia in Aulide) and Jocasta (Le Amazzoni) with Ars Minerva.

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.

Cara grew up in Portland, Oregon and currently resides in Oakland, California.