Soprano Alicia Russell Tagert has sung throughout the United States, beginning with her professional debut with her hometown Asheville Symphony Orchestra in 2013. This season, she debuts as Waldvögel in Virginia Opera’s Siegfried. Last season, she debuted with Opera Birmingham as Gretel in Hänsel and Gretel and at the Glimmerglass Festival with featured roles in Candide and covering Musetta in La Bohème. Recent performance highlights include Morgan in Fierce as part of the anticipated world premiere with Cincinnati Opera in July 2022 and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, where she sang as a Gate City Bank Young Artist in 2021. Ms. Tagert was scheduled to make her company debut in June 2020 with Lyric Opera Unlimited in the anticipated Chicago premiere of Blue, which has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19. Her other performance highlights include Frasquita|Carmen, Daisy Buchanan|The Great Gatsby, Pamina|Die Zauberflöte, Donna Elvira|Don Giovanni, the title role in Savitri, and Rosalinde|Die Fledermaus.
Equally recognized for her concert performances, Ms. Tagert debuted with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. In 2020, she sang as the soprano soloist in a reduced Messiah concert with Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra (virtual). In 2019, she sang Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra and performed as a recitalist with the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago in February 2020. Past concert performances include Handel’s Laudate Pueri Dominium, Utrecht Te Deum and Messiah; Honnegger’s King David; Mozart’s Requiem and Missa in C Minor; and Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus, RV 807.
A competitive force, this year Ms. Tagert was a finalist in the prestigious Lotte Lenya Competition and the Career Bridges Grant Competition. In 2022, she was a semi-finalist in the Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Singer of the Year Competition and a finalist in Opera Birmingham’s Vocal Competition. She is a four time award winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition from 2019-2022, with her most recent prize from the South Carolina district in January. She also won the 2018 Northwestern University Concerto/Aria Competition and received the Ginger Meyer Scholarship in the 2018 Musicians Club of Women Competition. She holds a Master of Music from Northwestern University and Bachelor of Music from Furman University.