About Caitlin

American soprano Caitlin Aloia enjoys a flourishing career in opera, chamber music, and art song, with particular recognition for her work in contemporary music.

This season, Ms. Aloia was awarded a Career Grant at the Pasadena Vocal Competition and was named a District Winner in the Houston District of the Metropolitan Opera's Laffont Competition. Recently, she performed with Pittsburgh Festival Opera excerpts from La bohème, Rusalka, Pagliacci, and Street Scene. She appeared as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor with the Woodlands Chorale and joined Des Moines Metro Opera as an Apprentice Artist, where she covered the soprano soloist in Szymanowski's King Roger and performed scenes as Magda (La rondine), the title role in Rusalka, and Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann. Earlier in the season, she starred in the world premiere of Theo Chandler's So You May Breathe in Light with Loop38 at MATCH Houston, presented two solo recitals on the Music at the Meeting House series with pianists Chelsea de Souza and James Palmer, covered the soprano soloist in Strauss' Four Last Songs with the Houston Ballet, and appeared in a Houston Laffont Competition-sponsored recital alongside baritone Luke Sutliff.

In October, Ms. Aloia performs a semi-staged version of Bach’s Kaffeekantate, BWV 211 on the Houston-based thematic music series Point of Departure, produced and directed by pianist James Palmer. 

A committed advocate for new music, Ms. Aloia premiered Patrick Hawes' Son of Man with the Houston Symphony and Houston Chamber Choir and created the title role in the U.S. premiere of Daniel Knaggs' Zita di Lucca. She also gave the world premieres of Upon Further Reflection at Rice University and Karim Al-Zand's Your Letter Pleased Me Greatly in 2024.

In the 2023–2024 season, Ms. Aloia performed Musetta in La bohème with Opera in the Heights and participated in the workshop of So You May Breathe in Light. She made her professional and role debut at the Santa Fe Opera as Proserpina in Nico Muhly's orchestration of L'Orfeo and appeared in the choruses of Rusalka, Tosca, and The Flying Dutchman. Other operatic credits include La Fortuna (L'incoronazione di Poppea), the Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Poppea (Agrippina), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), and La Princesse (L'enfant et les sortilèges).

In 2022, she was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera, performing in Carmen, Falstaff, and the world premiere of M. Butterfly. She is also the inaugural recipient of the Carolyn Bailey Argento Fellowship for Vocal Performance and first prize winner of the 2022 NOA Vocal Competition.

Earlier performances include Les Illuminations by Britten at Yale University, the premiere of Kari Watson’s Sunburnt Monoliths with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Kati Agócs’ Vessel with the Oberlin Sinfonietta, and the role of the Widow in Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Oberlin. A 2020 Oberlin Concerto Competition winner, her planned return performance of Les Illuminations with the Oberlin Orchestra was cancelled due to COVID-19.

An ardent recitalist and chamber musician, Ms. Aloia was a 2021 fellow at Marlboro Music Festival, where she performed with internationally acclaimed artists in works by Villa-Lobos, Brahms, and John Harbison, including the premiere of a new movement from In the Early Evening. She also made her Houston debut in Knaggs' Two Streams with the Houston Chamber Choir and KINETIC alongside mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, under the production of Grammy® Award-winning producer Blanton Alspaugh.

Ms. Aloia is a three-time Encouragement Award winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and a recipient of numerous honors, including the Margot Bos Stambler '84 Professional Development Scholarship, Becky and Ralph S. O'Connor Artist Diploma Fellowship, Mary Root Kirkland Prize in Voice, Stephen Dannemiller Scholarship, and the Oberlin Conservatory Dean's Scholarship.

She has participated in SongFest at the Colburn School as a Colburn Fellow, performing in recitals curated by Jake Heggie, Lydia Brown, and Liza Stepanova, and working closely with composer John Harbison on his Mirabai Songs.

Ms. Aloia holds a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and both a Master of Music and Artist Diploma from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.