Hailed by The Boston Globe as a "breathtakingly solid" soprano,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer as "fearless," and the Boston Musical Intelligencer as having a "captivatingly expressive strength," contemporary opera specialist Tamara Ryan is known for her nuanced and sensitive portrayals of women experiencing and responding to trauma and loss—a calling that she pursues both as a Boston-based soprano and as the founder and General Director of Opera Fayetteville.

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      A graduate of the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music, Tamara has appeared in recent seasons as Sibyl Vane in Lowell Liebermann's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Stephanie in Jake Heggie's To Hell and Back,  Madame de Tourvel in Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons, Almera in Nico Muhly's Dark Sisters, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, First Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Older Alyce in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied, as well as starring in one-woman showpiece, Miss Havisham's Wedding Night.

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     Ms. Ryan's career is marked by musical and dramatic innovation. Passionate about new music from the beginning, she made her professional debut with Philadelphia area new music group, Orchestra 2001, singing the Rossetti Songs, a cycle written for her by prize-winning composer, Thomas Whitman. More recently, she has performed as part of the Chorus of Souls in Beth Morrison Opera Project’s workshop of Paula Prestini’s Sensorium Ex and the lead role of Sonny in the initial workshop of White Snake Productions' Permadeath. She has spent over a decade as a champion of contemporary opera in a regional setting in her work at Opera Fayetteville. She is also a sought-after interpreter of the traditional repertoire in unique and demanding settings. She joined Opera Brittenica as Governess in a ground-breaking immersive production of The Turn of the Screw and MassOpera as Violetta in a daring, site-specific production of Verdi’s La Traviata.

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     This year, Tamara will make her musical theater debut in Boston Huntington Theatre’s production of The Light in the Piazza (Swing). She will also sing Nella in Gianni Schicchi with Santa Fe’s Opera West and be a featured soloist and contributor in Catalyst New Music’s Fuse: Collaborations in Song project.