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, and Older Alyce in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied, as well as starring in one-woman showpiece, Miss Havisham's Wedding Night and performing the lead role of Sonny in the initial workshop of White Snake Productions' Permadeath. 

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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. She has spent over a decade as a champion of contemporary opera in a regional setting in her work at Opera Fayetteville. In 2014, she joined Opera Brittenica as Governess in a ground-breaking immersive production of The Turn of the Screw.  And, in the Fall of 2021, she returned to the traditional repertoire as Violetta in a daring, site-specific production of Verdi’s La Traviata with MassOpera.