About
Mariah Rae (she/her) is a Filipina-American soprano from Portland, Oregon and is now based in Southern California. Mariah received a Master of Music in Opera Performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music (BCCM) at California State University Long Beach in 2020, studying with Dr. Katharin Rundus and the late Timothy MacDougall. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance and Journalism from Loyola Marymount University (LMU) where she studied with Dr. Veera Khare Asher and the late Dr. Karl Snider.
Mariah is often praised for her sharp musicianship and theatrical instincts. Mariah started in musical theatre, choir, and piano at a young age prior to studying classical voice, and finds herself at the edge of operatic and choral spaces today. Her adaptability and musical versatility allow her to sing a variety of styles and genres. In addition to an appreciation for classical repertoire, she thoroughly enjoys projects that challenge the norm or go outside of the box.
Onstage
Mariah has appeared with Pacific Opera Project, Overtone Industries, Lyric Opera of Orange County, and is a part of the GRAMMY®-winning vocal ensemble Tonality. Through Tonality she has sang with the Kronos Quartet for Michael Abels' At War With Ourselves, Björk as part of her Cornucopia West Coast tour, Lina Lapelyte's Sun & Sea opera, Michael Giacchino's Society of the Snow, and was a part of the 2024 GRAMMY®-winning album So She Howls by Carla Patullo that featured Tonality and the Scorchio Quartet.
Recent opera credits include Papagena in Mozart's The Magic Flute in Pacific Opera Project's video game-themed "#Superflute", Polyxena in O-Lan Jones' Cynossema, Bizet's Carmen, Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. Other roles include Soeur Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, Lauretta in Gianni Schicci, and scenes as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Adina in L'elisir d'amore, Manon in Manon, Despina in Così fan tutte, as well as Cage's Europera 5 and Blitzstein's Regina. Mariah placed 2nd in the NATS-LA Collegiate Auditions Graduate Division in 2021, participated in SongFest as a Young Artist (2019), attended the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) Opera Studio in Graz (2019), Hawaii Performing Arts Festival as a featured soloist in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Puccini's Suor Angelica (2017), the University of Miami Frost School of Music's summer program in Salzburg (2016), and toured with the Loyola Marymount University choruses in France (2015). During her time at LMU she was a member of vocal ensembles such as The Consort Singers and The Sinatra Opera Workshop (2014-2018), and was a member of The Opera Institute during her time at BCCM (2018-2020).
Offstage
Adjacently from singing, Mariah maintains a balance between her work as a nonprofit database professional. She has excelled academically and professionally, and was awarded 'Music Department Program Scholar' at LMU, as well as the 'Outstanding Creative Activity' Graduate Commencement Award at BCCM, for her writing on Filipina soprano Jovita Fuentes and the notion of resilience. As a multi-hyphenate professional, she strives to use her voice, unique skillset, and lived experience to be an example for her communities and uplift others on their journeys.
