American mezzo-soprano Hope Nelson joins the OperAvenir Studio at Theater Basel in Switzerland for the 2024/25 season.

She will make her house and role debut as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as return to a favorite role, Fuchs in Janáček’s Das schlaue Füchslein. She will also perform role debuts as Mercédès in Carmen, Annina in La Traviata, Rossweisse in Die Walküre, and First Witch/Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas.

In 2023/24, Nelson completed her studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, graduating with an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies in the studio of soprano Rhoslyn Jones. 

In the same season, she performed with Pocket Opera as The Fox in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen, with Solo Opera as Tilda in the West Coast premiere of Lori Laitman and Dana Gioia’s The Three Feathers, and was also engaged at Opera San José covering the legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade as she sang the role of herself in a workshop of Shinji Eshima and Tony Asaro’s Zheng. 

This summer, she spends eight weeks as a Fellow at the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West.

The 2022/23 season saw her debut with Long Beach Opera in THE RECITAL, where she sang Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin in a dynamic new production and staging imagined and co-directed by filmmaker Tom C. J. Brown and multidisciplinary artist Raviv Ullman. 

She also sang the roles of The Secretary of the Consulate in The Consul and L’écureuil in L’enfant et les Sortilèges with SFCM, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte with the Santa Rosa Symphony, and Liza Elliott in Kurt Weill’s Lady in the Dark with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory.

In 2021/22, Nelson performed as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito and Sesto in Giulio Cesare at SFCM, and as The Fox in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen at the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory.

Nelson holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (AD ‘24, MM ‘22) and the University of British Columbia (BM ‘20). 

She is a two-time winner of the San Francisco District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (‘24, ‘23), as well as an encouragement award recipient at the regional level (‘24, ‘23) and district level (‘22). 

She has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses given by Joyce DiDonato, Ian Bostridge, Susan Graham, and Patricia Racette.

During her time at the University of British Columbia, she was a recipient of the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow award and studied with soprano and director Nancy Hermiston. With the UBC Opera Ensemble, she performed as Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and Madeleine in Silent Night. She was proud to represent UBC on tour in the Czech Republic, at Vancouver’s annual Bard on the Beach festival, and as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

She is passionate about arts education, and feels forever indebted to the artistic community at the Spindrift School of Performing Arts in Pacifica, CA that educated, supported, and raised her.

She enjoys sitting on patios, eating olives, backpacking, heartbreaking literature, and the ocean.