During the 2026-27 season, Filipino American soprano Emilie Kealani will make her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in the spring of 2027 singing Najade and covering Zerbinetta with conductor Oksana Lyniv and director Bruno Ravella reviving the John Cox production as well as joining Opera Lafayette to sing Astrée/Diane in Rameau's Les Surprises de l'Amour led by Patrick Quigley. This season the lyric coloratura made her Opera Philadelphia debut as Corinna in Damiano Michieletto’s production of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims under the baton of Corrado Rovaris. The company has also named her an Emerging Artist where she will subsequently perform a recital as part of the honor. Concert appearances include Allentown Symphony for the Mozart Requiem; Bellingham Chorale for both the Mozart Great Mass in C minor and Solemn Vespers; and York Symphony Orchestra to perform excerpts from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus to celebrate the 200th birthday of the composer. Ms. Kealani will join the 2026 Merola Opera Program where she will perform the role of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. Last season she joined Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to cover Adele in Die Fledermaus with conductor George Manahan and director Shawna Lucey, Norina in Don Pasquale led by Kensho Watanabe and staged by Christopher Alden, Young Ida in the world-premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House under the baton of Daniela Candillari and direction of James Robinson, in addition to performing Cobweb in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Leonard Slatkin on the podium and Tim Albery on stage direction duties. 

Previously, Ms. Kealani made a “Eindringlich gezeichnet und vokal erfüllt” (hauntingly drawn and vocally fulfilled) international debut with Staatsoper Stuttgart in their 2023 revival of Calixto Bieito’s production of Jenůfa where she sang the role of Jano with Marko Letonja on the podium. At The Glimmerglass Festival, she was praised by The Wall Street Journal for her “delicate” and “ideal” title role portrayal in La Calisto with conductor Rob Ainsley and director Mo Zhou. Additional appearances with the company included Lucy in the workshop of The House on Mango Street directed by Chía Patiño and Nicole Paiement conducting; Musetta in La bohème with Nader Abbassi on the podium and E. Loren Meeker directed; and covered the role of Almirena in Handel’s Rinaldo with the artistic team of conductor Emily Senturia and stage director Louisa Proske. As an apprentice with The Santa Fe Opera, Ms. Kealani performed scenes as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. 

With crossover credits in Candide, Into the Woods, and West Side Story, Ms. Kealani’s performances have been celebrated for displaying “a joy in singing, an empathy in her outrageous stage personality, and jaw-dropping technique.” Beyond the stage, she is a returning guest to PBS WHYY TV-12 programming, featured in the Soundbites Column of OPERA NEWS, and the founder of the Kapwa Passion Project. 

Emilie is a proud Filipina from San Francisco, with deep roots that extend to Pā‘ia, Maui, where her grandmother was born and raised, bringing the spirit and influence of Hawaiian culture into her identity. Self-taught on the traditional ukulele, Emilie grew up surrounded by a family who danced Hula and Tahitian. Programming Kundimans—traditional Tagalog love songs—with the hope of sharing this exquisite and emotionally rich music with wider audiences sparked the creation of the Kapwa Passion Project in 2024. The project strives to bring AAPI artists together, creating spaces for us to cultivate a shared sense of community through music with events ranging from multidisciplinary recitals to panel discussions with artists representing the Bengali, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Tongan communities. Kawpa is featured on PBS WHYY TV-12 in their new Concert Specials Series throughout May 2025 & 2026 to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Gaining recognition from notable organizations, Emilie received the inaugural Stephen de Maio Memorial Award and an encouragement award from The Gerda Lissner Foundation. She won the Philadelphia District of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, advancing to the Middle Atlantic Region, and holds titles with Opera Mississippi's John Alexander National Vocal Competition, The National Shirley Rabb Winston Competition, Schmidt Undergraduate Awards, Beach Blanket Babylon, and National YoungArts Foundation.

As alumna of The Curtis Institute of Music (MM ‘25) and The Manhattan School of Music (BM ‘21), Emilie’s features include Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Cunegonde in Candide, Dalinda in Ariodante, covering Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, and covering Poppea in The Comet/Poppea. Graduating from high school at the age of 16, she received the prestigious title of U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.

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