ADA Artist Management & Representation

Biography

Soprano Erika Rauer is acclaimed for the “dark and sultry” sound she brings to both concert and operatic literature. For her performance of Abigail Williams in The Crucible at Opera Boston, the Boston Globe commended her “great stage face and strikingly individual timbre.” Her performance of Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony with the Franciscan Chamber Orchestra was praised by Schenectady Daily Gazette who stated, “Rauer’s voice is perfectly suited for a modern score and she sang with unbridled passion.”  Erica will participate in the upcoming workshops and performances of Dark Sisters with Gotham Chamber Opera in the next two seasons. During the fall of 2008 Ms. Rauer made her debut in Germany performing the title role in Salome at Oper Bremen. The 2008-2009 season also includes role debuts of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with the dell’Arte Opera Ensemble in New York as well as her New York recital debut in a program of Minimalist music on the Phoenix Concert Series.  In Spring 2008 Ms. Rauer sang Belinda and Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and performed in outreach events with New York City Opera Education.

Engagements in 2007 included covering Mimí in La bohème at the Opera Company of North Carolina, Handel’s Messiah with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, and the Beethoven Mass in C Major with Albany Pro Musica.  A Vocal Chamber Music fellow at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia in 2006, Ms Rauer gave a series of concerts which included Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok and From Jewish Folk Poetry, quartets by Hindemith and Earl Kim, and a world premier of Songs from Spoonriver by Chicago composer Lita Grier.  Additional concert highlights include Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Dover Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Yale Philharmonia, the Mozart Requiem with the Waterbury Symphony, and Copland’s Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson in the Westminster Songfest concert series. Ms. Rauer has performed as a soloist with orchestras including Orchestra 2001 of Philadelphia, the Connecticut Master Chorale and Orchestra, the Trinity Chorus and Orchestra, and the Canterbury Chorale and Orchestra. She has been featured in interviews and live performances on the NPR program “Performance Place,” as well as in the Tanglewood broadcast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on “Saturday Afternoon at the Opera” on WQXR.

During three seasons at the Tanglewood Music Center, Ms. Rauer appeared as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Chatte, L’Écureil, and Un Pâtre in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, and sang chamber music ranging from Zemlinsky’s Maiblumen blühten überall to Crumb’s Madrigals. Previously a mezzo soprano, Ms. Rauer’s European operatic debut was as Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Snape Proms Festival in Aldeburgh, England. She was a member of Glimmerglass Opera’s prestigious Young American Artist’s Program in 2002, covering Meg in Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women and singing Britten’s Phaedra in recital. Ms. Rauer received her graduate training at the Yale School of Music, where her roles included Cherubino in Colin Graham’s production of Le nozze di Figaro, Leonora in Scarlatti’s Il trionfo dell’onore, and Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte.

A native of Dover, Delaware, Ms. Rauer received her Bachelor’s Degree from Swarthmore College in religion and her Master’s Degree in voice from the Yale School of Music.