With “tones of pure gold” (Washington Post), soprano Michelle Rice brings her rich timbre and intensity of stagecraft to the work.  In recent seasons, she appeared as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Corigliano’s Fern Hill with the San Francisco Choral Society; performed the mezzo solos in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Matthäuspassion with the Messiah Festival of the Arts; sang the soprano solos in rarely heard performances of Schoenfield’s Camp Songs; premiered Shahab Paranj’s work for soprano and percussion, Iran, at UCLA; performed the role of Brangäne in a concert performance of Tristan und Isolde; and covered the role of Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw for Opera UCLA.  Recent online performances include the role of Sieglinde in a filmic presentation of Act I of Die Walküre with Dramatic Voices Program Berlin; a video presentation of “To this we’ve come” from Menotti’s The Consul, featured in a program celebrating Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 88th birthday, produced for the Smithsonian; and Paranj’s entry in Long Beach Opera’s 2020Songbook, Rishe-e Dar Khak.  Excelling in mezzo repertoire for 15 years before moving to dramatic soprano, Rice’s career highlights include the roles of Lady Gruoch Macbeth in Peire-Serrate’s The Queen, My Lord, Is Dead; Mrs. Grose (The Turn of the Screw) conducted by Lorin Maazel at the Kennedy Center; Dorabella (Così fan tutte) with acclaimed comic film director Jonathan Lynn; Virginia Woolf in Dominick Argento’s Pulitzer Prize-winning monodrama From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, performed for the composer; and the mezzo solo in Verdi’s Requiem alongside Sharon Sweet and James Morris.  

Rice is the Artistic Director and Executive Producer of Seven Sisters Productions, a company that commissions, develops, produces, premieres, and records new works for the voice.  Seven Sisters produced, and Rice performed, a video recital of new works for the voice by UCLA student composers entitled Song Gallery in 2021.  The following year, Seven Sisters produced the world premiere of a one-act chamber opera about Lady Macbeth, The Queen, My Lord, Is Dead, composed by Tomàs Peire-Serrate to a libretto by Alejandra Villarreal Martinez.  A studio album of The Queen was released in May of last year, and Rice performed excerpts of the score at the 2025 Opera Conference’s New Works Showcase in Memphis.  Additional performances of The Queen are planned for the United States and Europe, and several other works commissioned by Seven Sisters Productions are in development.

Rice created the title role in Clara, an opera by Robert Convery based on the life of Clara Schumann.  Of that performance, the Washington Post declared, “Rice was…reflective and confident in both her singing and acting... [she] excelled at dramatic subtleties and pierced scenes with her presence and clarity of voice – especially compelling during revelatory biographical moments.”  With more than 50 roles to her credit, Rice has also appeared in such roles as Kathy Hagen (Blanchard’s Champion), Madre Melchora (Lucero’s Juana, world premiere), Sidia Gruenfeld (Hamer’s Lost Childhood, world premiere), Jade Boucher (Dead Man Walking), Herodias (Salome), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Emilia (Otello), Flora Bervoix (La traviata), Carmen and Mercedes (Carmen), the Witch and the Mother (Hansel and Gretel), Savitri (Savitri), Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Serse and Arsamene (Serse), Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Larina (Eugene Onegin), Antonia’s Mother (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Gertrude (Roméo et Juliette), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), the Secretary (The Consul), Anna (Tobias and the Angel), Zweite und Dritte Damen (Die Zauberflöte), Mère Marie (Dialogues des Carmélites), and the Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), with companies including Opera San José, Fresno Grand Opera, West Bay Opera, Opera Cleveland, Annapolis Opera, Pasadena Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, the In Series, Festival Opera, Opera Parallèle, New Orleans Opera, and other organizations throughout the United States. 

On the concert stage, Rice has performed the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Korngold’s Passover Psalm; and the mezzo solos in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mussorgsky’s Songs and dances of death, Mozart’s Krönungsmesse and Requiem, Händel’s Messiah, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Schubert’s Mass in A♭ Major, Bernstein’s Songfest, Fonseca’s Missa Afro-Brasileira, and Elgar’s The Music Makers, with groups including Berkeley Symphony, Washington Concert Opera, Monterey Symphony, Masterworks Chorale of San Mateo, Symphony of Southeast Texas, Claremont Symphony Orchestra, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Billings Symphony, Prince George’s Philharmonic, and MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall, among many others. 

Upcoming engagements include excerpts from the role of Chrysothemis in Strauss’ Elektra at showcases in New York and London; the mezzo solo in the Duruflé Requiem; and the world premiere of Stellar, a concert work celebrating space science commissioned by Seven Sisters Productions, followed by the studio recording of Stellar in early 2027.  Rice holds degrees from the University of Maryland Opera Studio (MM) and the University of California Los Angeles (DMA).