Isabelle Kosempa, mezzo-soprano, is pursuing her Master of Music degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University under the tutelage of Professor Nova Thomas. She received her Bachelor of Music, with a minor in English, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she recently won the UNC Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. There, she also performed roles such as Ottone in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, the Gingerbread Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, and Fidalma in Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto. In 2022, she was a first-place winner at the National Student Auditions of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. This summer, she returned as a young artist with the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center where, in her first year, she covered Flora in Verdi’s La traviata, and this year made her debut as the Minskwoman in a new production of Dove’s Flight. This season, Isabelle will be the mezzo-soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah with the Brevard Music Center and will perform the role of Samira in Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles with The Shepherd School of Music.