Jessica Tivens

Jessica Tivens, a soprano from Calabasas, CA has been performing in opera and crossover music professionally since age 8 when she won an episode of CBS Television’s Star Search. A regular soloist with her home symphonies, the Burbank Philharmonic and the New West Symphony, Ms. Tivens gave many concert performances in her native Los Angeles as a teenager. At 18 she debuted with Festival Opera Walnut Creek as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro to much critical acclaim and went on with the company to perform Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Sophie in Werther. Having attended the Music Academy of the West, and studied with the great mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne, Ms. Tivens made her New York City recital debut with the Marilyn Horne Foundation in the spring of 2001. Ms. Tivens made her Carnegie Hall debut in that same year in a series of masterclasses and recitals conducted by another great mezzo, Christa Ludwig. In 2003, Ms. Tivens attended the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, and played Monica in their production of The Medium. She immediately followed up with a year as a Resident Young Artist with Seattle Opera, where she played Despina in the resident artist production of Cosi fan Tutte.

The spring of 2006 saw her return to Carnegie Hall as soprano soloist for the world premiere of Ed Lojeski’s Missa Americana. She then gave a sold-out joint recital with countertenor, Brian Asawa, at Arcosanti, AZ. More recent engagements include Componist in Ariadne auf Naxos with the New York Opera Forum, Rosina in Barbiere with Metro Lyric Opera New Jersey, and 2nd Lady in The Magic Flute with the Harrisburg Opera Association. Ms. Tivens joined DiCapo Opera Theater as a Resident Artist for the 2008-2009 season. She covered the role of Abigail Williams and performed the role of Sarah Good in Robert Ward’s The Crucible and repeated her performance for the award-winning European Premiere of the work in Szeged, Hungary in November, 2008. She also performed the title role of Beauty in Vittorio Gianinni’s Beauty and the Beast at DiCapo in January, 2009, and was a featured soloist in a concert of rare American operatic works, conducted by Maestro Steven Osgood. She then returned to Harrisburg Opera to perform scenes from Tosca and La Boheme as part of their Puccini Anniversary concert.

In 2011, Ms. Tivens returns to the Los Angeles area to perform the soprano solo in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the New West Symphony, and to perform selected operatic works in the Palm Springs Opera Arts Festival. She will then travel to the Strings in The Mountains festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where she will perform two concerts as part of their summer series. Additionally, her first full-length album, Unlimited; is currently available on iTunes and CDbaby.com.