Soprano ELIZABETH RACHEVA is quickly gaining notice for her vivid, risk-taking performances, incisive musicianship, and versatility in opera and concert repertoire.  Last season, Elizabeth won praise in the Dallas Morning News for her “impressive” debut with the Dallas Symphony in subscription concerts led by Maestro Claus Peter Flor as well as repeat appearances with Dallas art song society Voces Intimae at the Meadows Museum and Dallas Museum of Art.  Other debuts for the North Carolina native in the 2006-2007 season included appearances with Charleston Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, The Living Opera, and the southwestern chamber music ensemble Voices of Change.  Upcoming performances include a return to the DSO and Fort Worth Symphony, as well as debuts with Lubbock Symphony as Musetta and a Holiday Pops concert with MidAtlantic Symphony.

In 2005-2006 the soprano debuted as Barbarina with Greensboro Opera and as Gretel in a joint production with North Carolina Symphony and Capitol Opera Raleigh, which she was promptly engaged to reprise during that orchestra’s 2006 Summerfest series. Elizabeth has embodied a number of dramatic and comedic heroines in both the standard and modern repertoire for which she has been hailed for her “delicious voice” (Classical Voice North Carolina) and “exemplary diction and persuasive acting” (Baltimore Sun).  Her contemporary roles include Laurie Moss in Copland’s The Tender Land  (Opera Vivente, The Living Opera), Masha in Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop (Baltimore Opera, 2002 and 2003 Artscape Festivals), Niece One (Peter Grimes, Berkshire Choral Festival), and the title roles in Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and David Shapiro’s prize-winning chamber opera The April Witch, which she performed for the National Opera Association. Other favorite portrayals include Serpetta (Mozart’s La finta giardiniera), Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Lisette (La Rondine), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Lizette (Naughty Marietta), Gianetta (The Gondoliers), and Serpina (La serva padrona) for companies including Lyric Opera of New York, Peggy & Yale Gordon Trust, Baltimore Opera Guild, and Young Victorian Theatre Company.

Ms. Racheva’s concert engagements include Schubert’s Mass in G at Miller Theater for the Columbia Bach Society (NYC) and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Charleston Symphony and Lancaster Festival (OH).  An avid recitalist and chamber musician, Elizabeth has performed frequently in solo programs and with flutist Betsy Garry as Duo Rossignol for presenters including Trinity Church Concerts at One (NYC), Columbia University’s Music at St. Paul’s series (NYC), Festival of Sound (Dallas), Music at Second (Baltimore), the Academy Art Museum (Easton, MD), The Vienna Project: Vienna in Song at the Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA), The Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts (Atlanta), and the Rising Stars Concert Series for winners of the eponymous competition (Fairfax, VA).  This season Ms. Racheva was invited to lead Voces Intimae as Artistic Director--the year's offerings include concerts inspired by Goethe and his iconic Italian Journey in a season entitled: Kennst du das Land: The Lure of Italy.

Elizabeth is an effective communicator in crossover repertoire---she cherishes opportunities to perform Tin Pan Alley standards and the music of Broadway.  Ms. Racheva has performed in a number of musical-dance revues and gala concerts, which showcase her special abilities in this repertoire.  A proponent of educational outreach, she was engaged as a member of the Baltimore Opera Education Ensemble in three different productions from 2000-2002, performing for schoolchildren throughout the Mid-Atlantic in venues including Wolftrap Theatre-in-the-Woods, Annapolis Opera, and Opera Delaware as well as countless cafetoriums and gymaterias.

Ms. Racheva earned a Bachelor of Arts with High Honors from Emory University and a Master of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma, with Certificate in Opera Performance, from Peabody Conservatory, graduating Pi Kappa Lambda.  Ms. Racheva received additional training as a Resident Artist with the Berkshire Opera Company in 2002.  Elizabeth also completed studies with longtime duo partner Laura Ziegler at the Middlebury College Deutsche Schule and the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden bei Wien, Austria, where she had the privilege to study Lieder and poetry with such eminent artists and specialists as Helmut Deutsch, Elly Ameling, Rudolf Jansen, Wolfgang Holzmair, Robert Tear, and Max Deen Larsen.

When she is not singing, Elizabeth enjoys art of all kinds, film, literature, travel, ice cream, and time in nature.  She currently resides in Dallas with her husband, Danail.