Jennifer
Rowley

Soprano Jennifer Rowley is acclaimed worldwide for her unforgettable voice and remarkable stage presence, singing a richly varied repertoire that includes many of opera's greatest heroines. Her 2025/26 season brings three role debuts: the fierce Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth at the Teatro Carlo Felice, Genova, Turandot with Florida Grand Opera, and Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano’s Andrea Chenier at the Metropolitan Opera. She will begin the 2025/26 season at the Kennedy Center, singing the title role in Verdi’s Aida with Washington National Opera. Ms. Rowley will join maestro Fabio Luisi for Madama Butterfly with the Dallas Symphony, both in Dallas and at Bravo! Vail, a collaboration which spans nearly a decade of her career.

The past several seasons have introduced Ms. Rowley to new audiences across the globe. She began the 2024-25 season in Beijing, China, portraying Minnie in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West at the National Center for the Performing Arts in a production by Thaddeus Strassberger and led by Maestro Carlo Rizzi. Ms. Rowley’s season included a reprisal of her signature role, Amelia Grimaldi in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra with Opernhaus Zürich, her debut at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari singing the soprano solos in Perosi’s Il Giudizio Universale, and her return to Tosca at the Teatro Petruzzelli, in Bari, Italy, and with the Richmond Symphony and conductor Valentina Peleggi. Ms Rowley also made her house debut at the Teatro Colon in the title role of Aida and reprised the role at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari to close out the 2024/25 season. 

Ms. Rowley is an avid mentor to the next generation of opera’s young artists, carrying the torch from her mentor Martina Arroyo. As the founder and director of Aria Bootcamp, a 501©3 educational charity, Ms. Rowley has created a young artist program focused on giving world class training to emerging professional operatic artists. Ms. Rowley holds an annual artist residency at her alma mater, Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, and is currently on the voice faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. 

2023-24 season featured a variety of international debuts. The soprano began the season making her highly anticipated debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper with a concert performance of Italian and Zarzuela operatic favorites. She made her debut at the Teatro Carlo Felice in the title role of Madama Butterfly under the baton of maestro Fabio Luisi and her role debut as Minnie in La Fanciulla del West at the Teatro Regio Torino under the baton of Francesco Ivan Ciampa. Ms. Rowley also jumped in for a single performance as Puccini’s title heroine, Tosca, with Staatsoper Berlin Unter den Linden. On the concert stage, she was featured in a Puccini concert marking the centennial celebrations in 2024 with Opera de Tours in France and the Richmond Symphony as soprano soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem. 

Ms. Rowley’s 2022-23 season brought her debut at the Staatsoper Berlin Unter den Linden as Leonora in Il Trovatore, a revival of her celebrated portrayal as Valentine in Les Huguenots at the Semperoper Dresden, her role debut as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly for Palm Beach Opera, as well as her role and theatre debut in the title role of Manon Lescaut with the Teatro Verdi Salerno. Her concert schedule included international debuts at the Aspendos Ruins and Theatre in Aspendos, Turkey, the Opera Royal de Wallonie Liege in Belgium, the Royal Opera Versailles in France, as well as a solo concert with Opera Naples. In addition, she performed concerts at L’Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Busan Cinema Center in South Korea, and on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC entitled “Rebuild Harmony” with Opera Italiana is in the Air. 

During the 2021-22 season, she made her house debut at Opéra de Rouen in her signature role of Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore in a modern production directed by Clarac and Deloeuil’s ‘Le Lab’, with a highly praised cinema and television broadcast across France. She returned to the Semperoper Dresden to star as the title role of Puccini’s Tosca, and reprised her critically celebrated Amelia Grimaldi at Opernhaus Zürich. Ms. Rowley also made her house and role debut as HannahGlawari in Lehár’s The Merry Widow at Palm Beach Opera, for which critics raved about her performance of the famous ‘Vilja Lied’ writing that it “should be placed among the greatest performances of this aria.” On the concert stage, Ms. Rowley performed concert performances of Tosca with the Israel Philharmonic led by maestro Zubin Mehta. She was the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s colossal Missa Solemnis with the Philadelphia Orchestra both in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center, and New York City’s Carnegie Hall, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  

Other recent and career highlights include her house debut as the title role in Tosca at Opéra de Marseille, her house and role debut at the National Theatre Prague as Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera; her house and role debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as the title role of Aida; the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur, Tosca and Leonora in Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera; as well as, Leonora at Opéra de Paris and Maggio Musicale Florentino.

Audiences will remember Jennifer Rowley’s triumphant Metropolitan Opera role debut as Roxane in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac (2017) with Roberto Alayna in the title role, which inspired universal critical praise. The New York Times raved that this was a “break-through moment,” further adding that for the heartbreaking final scene, “Ms. Rowley sang with an intensity of expression and a subtly embittered sound that suggested a singer for enormous gift and promise.” The New York Classical Review echoed these statements, also calling this “a breakout night for Ms. Rowley.” Operawire called her Roxane “the heart of the production,” The Observer said she is “a superb artist,” while ConcertoNet called her Roxane “a revelation.” Ms. Rowley previously made her Metropolitan Opera stage debut in a sparkling portrayal of Musetta in La Bohème. 

Ms. Rowley’s calendar includes an active seminar and masterclass series for colleges and universities internationally. She has taught masterclasses and seminars for NATS NY and Tampa chapters, Penn State University, SUNY Potsdam, Bowling Green State University, the University of Miami, and has previously served as an artist in residence for various young artist programs such as Shreveport Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Toledo Opera. 

Ms. Rowley has served as voice faculty for several international festivals including Vincero Academy, Camerata Bardi Academy, the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, and Vienna Summer Music Festival. She is also a recommended judge for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Rowley led an internationally acclaimed Virtual Artist Residency with Fort Worth Opera, where she held weekly themed Zoom masterclasses, engaging lectures, and casual Instagram Live chats with other singers, directors, coaches, and opera industry professionals. The success of that series led her to create an exclusive, six-week Virtual Audition Intensive.

Ms. Rowley is a highly decorated soprano who has been recognized by many international competitions. She was awarded the 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant, was one of the top prizes winners in the 2013 Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition and the 2011 Opera Index Vocal Competition, a winner of the 2011 William Mattheus Sullivan Musical Foundation awards, a first prize-winner of the 2011 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, a grant winner of the 2011 Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition, and the winner of the 2010 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition for the Michigan District. 

Ms. Rowley holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. She holds a Certificate of Performance Achievement from the Instituto Superior del Arte of the Teatro Colón and was a Max Kade Scholar at Middlebury College’s German for Singers Program.  

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