Isabelle Kosempa is a 22-year-old mezzo-soprano from Durham, North Carolina. In the fall, she will begin pursuing her Master of Music degree in Opera at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music under the tutelage of professor Nova Thomas.

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This summer, Isabelle will be returning as a member of the Janiec Opera Company, a competitive two-month opera institute directed by Dean Anthony, at the Brevard Music Center. Under the baton of Joseph Mechavich, she will be performing as the Minskwoman in Jonathan Dove's Flight. Isabelle is also looking forward to being in the chorus of Puccini's La bohème, playing the Coaxer in Weill's The Threepenny Opera, and singing as a soloist in a concert featuring the music of Jerome Kern with Andy Einhorn accompanying on the piano.

 

Isabelle will receive her Bachelor of Music degree with a minor in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this May following four years of instruction from Dr. Jeanne Fischer and Maria Paulina Garcia. An avid performer throughout her undergraduate career, she sang many roles with UNC Opera, including 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. As a winner of the UNC Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, she was also thankful for the opportunity to perform Près des remparts de Séville (Seguidilla) from Bizet's Carmen and C'est l'amour vainqueur (The Violin Aria) from Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann with the symphony orchestra in February.

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This past fall, Isabelle performed as a soloist in the premiers of two new music projects. She was the mezzo-soloist in a new music collaboration with Dr. John Wood Sweet, a UNC history professor and writer, and Dr. C. Leonard Raybon, a composer from Tulane University. Known as “The Mending Sampler”, this composition is based off of Dr. Sweet’s award-winning book, The Sewing Girl's Tale, about the first young woman in America to sue for sexual assault (link to more information). She was also a soloist in the Carolina Choir premiere of a new work by Javier Farías titled "La Voz de Monica" about Monica's journey across the Mexico - U.S. border.

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In 2023, she spent her first summer with the Janiec Opera Company and was awarded the UNC Mildred Brown Mayo Undergraduate Research Fund in Music for her attendance. She performed in the chorus and covered Flora in Verdi’s La traviata and played Cinderella’s Mother, Little Red’s Granny, and the Giant in Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Additionally, she performed in several masterclasses with artists such as Elizabeth Futral, sang as the mezzo soloist with a symphonic band in the “Pendergrast Family Patriotic Pops Concert”, and was a soloist in an “Evening of George Gershwin" concert. The biggest highlight of her experience in the 2023 Janiec Opera Company was singing in concert with Patti LuPone.

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In 2022, Isabelle attended Songfest, a prestigious summer music program held at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and received the Songfest Schubert Fellow Scholarship awarded to only four Studio Artists. Just a month later, she was named the first-place winner in the NATS National Student Auditions competition, held in Chicago, and received the NATS National Student Auditions Dorothy Sawatski Prize (link to interview).