TAMARA RYAN
THE ARTIST
Boston-based soprano and contemporary music specialist, Tamara Ryan, is known for her nuanced and sensitive portrayals of women experiencing and responding to trauma and loss. Hailed by the Boston Globe as a "breathtakingly solid soprano" and by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “fearless," she 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, Sonny in Dan Visconti's Permadeath, Almera in Nico Muhly's Dark Sisters, Older Alyce in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, and in the title role of Dominick Argento's Miss Havisham's Wedding Night. This Fall, she returned to the traditional repertoire (and in-person performance!) as Violetta in a daring, immersive production of Verdi’s La Traviata.
THE ADMINISTRATOR
Tamara also pursues her calling of deep and compassionate vocal storytelling through her work as Founder and General Director of Opera Fayetteville, a company specializing in intimate productions of contemporary American opera in the heart of Northwest Arkansas since 2012. Her vision is one of opera as a living, breathing art form, continuously evolving with its surroundings, one that meets people where they are in everyday life as well as in the theater and the concert hall. She believes that the beauty of opera can be an important part of building the world we want to live in when it is created in an atmosphere of kindness and respect that starts in the rehearsal room and extends outward.
When she isn’t practicing or “administrating,” you can find Tamara singing Disney songs to her son at bath time, bumping into things while ruminating about the state of the world, and zealously defending her beliefs about what dishes can cannot legitimately be called “Mac and cheese.”