A native of San Jose, CA, Rachel Steinke is a bright lyric mezzo-soprano with a passion for collaborative, contemporary, and adventuresome performance. Rachel specializes in operatic new music, as well as the research and performance of underrepresented composers throughout history. Rachel sings with Choral Arts Initiative, a choir that specializes in new music premieres. She also recently performed with the NEO Voice Festival and Operation Opera in 2022, where all of the works performed were world premieres. Rachel premiered the role of Juliette in Kyle Ukes’ opera Memories from a Maiden Voyage, and was in the premiere chorus for Shuying Li’s When Purple Mountains Burn. She also performed Identities: a Recital where she premiered Aria Gittelson’s Entangled Life, a song cycle about mushrooms. Additionally, as a pansexual gender-nonconforming artist, Rachel often performs vocal works highlighting the LGBTQ+ experience.