Soprano Rachel Watkins performances in Opera and Concert have already taken her around the world to many of the great halls. Her talent has been described as having "a thrilling darkness and emotional texture", St. Petersburg Times, " The soprano has a powerful, pretty voice and is a fine actress as well." Times-Picayune

This coming season, Rachel debuted with Opera Tampa as Juliette in Gounod's famed opera Romeo et Juliette. Some of her recent operatic performances have been as Adina in L'elisir d'amore, Violetta, Clarice in Haydn's Il Mondo della Luna in Basel, Switzerland, Ida in Der Musikfeind, Fulvia in Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone and Die Königen die Nacht in Die Zauberflöte für Kinder with the Opernhaus Zürich. Other roles include: Gretel in Hansel und Gretel, Elvira in Rossini's l'italiana in Algeri, Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio cesare, Poppea in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Musetta in La Boh_me, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Manon. In February 2007 Rachel will sing the role of Rosina in Anton Coppola's epic opera, Sacco and Vanzetti; for which an aria was written for her and later in the season she will perform Violetta in La Traviata and Gilda in Rigoletto.

In addition to her operatic repertoire, Rachel is a consummate recitalist and concert performer, having given numerous concerts both in Europe and the United States. She has worked with notable conductors and has appeared as guest soloist with many Orchestras in such works as Mahler's Symphony #4, Beethoven Mass in C, and the Brahms and Fauré Requiems, to name a few. Ms. Watkins made her Lincoln Center debut last season, under the auspices of the Joy in Singing Foundation, singing a recital of works by Lowell Liebermann and Vincent Persichetti. She has also received numerous awards from prominent vocal competitions. Some of the competitions that she has won include the MacAllister Opera Competition Matthias Award, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Connecticut and Gulf Coast Regions, the Jenny Lind Soprano Competition, the Rosa Ponselle Competition and the Giulio Gari Foundation Opera Competition and the Liederkranz Competition. Ms. Watkins is also a recent recipient of a career grant from Career Bridges Foundation. Rachel can be seen on the recently released EMI Classics DVD of Der Rosenkavalier with Vasselina Kasarova, Nina Stemma, and Alfred Muff under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst and Sven Erich Bechtolf live from Opernhaus Zürich.

Ms. Watkins attended Loyola University, New Orleans, where she received a Bachelor of Music in Performance in 1999 and Yale University, receiving her Master of Music in May 2001. Ms. Watkins then went on to sing in the International Opera Studio with the world renowned Opernhaus Zürich. Her teachers include: Philip Frohnmayer, Doris Yarick-Cross and Horst Günther.