Mezzo-soprano EMILY AMESQUITA, originally from Seattle, is currently based in the Chicago area. She recently completed her final year of undergraduate studies in vocal performance at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music where she studied with Karen Brunssen. In her time at Northwestern, she was a three-year member of the Bienen Contemporary/Early Music Ensemble (BCE), working with baroque specialist Andrew Megill and having spent one year under grammy-winning conductor Donald Nally. Some of Amesquita’s past roles include Paloma/Baribieri’s El barberillo de Lavapiés and Prince Charmant/Massenet’s Cendrillon with Northwestern’s Opera Projects for Undergraduate Students (OPUS); Meg Page/Falstaff with La Musica Lirica; and Dorabella/Così fan tutte, Nancy/Albert Herring, and Nerone/L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Northwestern Opera Theater mainstage. Last Fall, she was selected to sing for internationally celebrated soprano Christine Goerke in the Bienen Tichio-Finnie Masterclass Series, and in the Spring, she attended the prestigious Young Artist Vocal Academy at Houston Grand Opera. She is grateful to have been named an encouragement award winner at this year’s Central Region of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition in addition to the first-place winner of Opera Grand Rapids’s VanderLaan Prize. This past summer, she worked as Studio Artist with Opera Neo, where she sang as a featured soloist in a concert of French mélodie and covered Clotarco/Armida (Haydn).