Soprano Emily Finke has been praised for her “rich color palette” and “deft high range” (South Florida Classical Review). Emily performs works that span the medieval period through contemporary opera and art song. She is committed to storytelling with the utmost artistry and authenticity. Most recently, Emily was a Studio Artist with the Chautauqua Opera Company where she performed the role of Willie Lincoln in a concert presentation of Lincoln in the Bardo by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek. She also appeared as the soprano soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, she covered Musetta in La bohème and sang the role of Joan in a workshop performance of Sitcom, a neo-baroque comedic opera by Luke Styles and Alan McKendrick. In 2024,  Emily appeared as Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers with the Bard Vocal Arts Program and in the opera chorus for Bard SummerScape’s production of Le Prophète by Meyerbeer. She was also a chorus fellow at the Spoleto Festival. In 2023, Emily appeared as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Magnificat with the Bard Chamber Singers and Symphonic Chorus and performed in a recital alongside baritone Jonathon Adams in their residency as part of Bard College’s Rethinking Place Conference in a program featuring music of living Métis composers and music composed and performed by Indigenous women in the convent schools of 17th century Quebec.

In 2022, Emily was a soloist in Part VI of Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the Albany Symphony conducted by Patrick Dupré Quigley. She also performed as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Palm Beach Symphony under the baton of Gerard Schwartz,  where she was praised for her “rich tone, smooth phrasing and a bright innocence” (South Florida Classical Review). Emily has also appeared as a soloist in the Fauré Requiem with the Frost Chorale and in excerpts from John Adams’ Christmas oratorio, El Niño, with Frost Opera Theater. Emily was an Emerging Artist at the Seagle Festival in the summers of 2022 and 2023 where she performed the role of Young Juana in Daniel Crozier and Peter Krask’s With Blood, With Ink, an opera about the life and works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. She also sang the roles ​of La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi and Lucy in Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears. 

Emily is a graduate of the University of Miami Frost School of Music where she sang the roles of Geraldine in A Hand of Bridge by Samuel Barber and Noelle in Scrapbookers, a micro-operetta by Leanna Kirchoff. Emily also performed many opera scenes with Frost Opera Theater, including Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte. During her time in Miami, Emily received numerous awards for her musical and academic achievements. She was awarded the National Society of Arts and Letters Florida Chapter 2022 Scholarship in Classical Voice, going on to represent the chapter nationally in the Shirley Rabb Winston Voice Competition. She was honored at the chapter’s 2022 Star Maker Awards in Boca Raton, FL, where she performed alongside other scholarship winners. Finke was also awarded the Outstanding Senior Award in Vocal Performance by the Frost School of Music. 

Emily earned a Master of Music degree from Bard Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami. She is presently based in the Hudson Valley, NY and studies with Michaela Martens.