Praised for her “big, beautifully projected voice with an attractive edge and sparkle” (Arts Knoxville), soprano Adia Evans is a 2024 recipient of the Igor Gorin Memorial Award from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, 2023 recipient of the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation and the 2022 William Matheus Sullivan Foundation Award. Evans has performed with Santa Fe Opera, Merola Opera Program, Fort Worth Opera, Dallas Opera Guild, Opera Columbus, Tulsa Opera, and Knoxville Opera, among others.

Currently, in her first year in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center Ensemble, Evans has been called “an upcoming star…brilliant onstage with a big, beautiful voice.” Evans made her debut at Lyric in the 2024-25 Season as Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto. She will also perform Girlfriend 2 in Blue and Theresa Alvarez in The Listeners this season. In the 2023-24 Season, the soprano debuted at The Cliburn in Recital with Jake Heggie, the Dayton Philharmonic (Handel's Messiah), and Annapolis Opera (First Lady in The Magic Flute). Other recent highlights include Mimì in La Bohème with the Borderland Arts Foundation and Beethoven's 9th with the National Orchestral Institute and Marin Alsop.

Evans spent the summer of 2023 as an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera where she covered the role of Foreign Princess in Rusalka and the titular role of Tosca. She also performed the role of Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the Apprentice Artist Scenes. Earlier in the season, Evans played High Priestess and covered the titular role in Aida, and The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Fort Worth Opera. Evans was a participant in the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, Evans was featured as First Lady in their production of Die Zauberflöte, as a solo Niña in scenes from Golijov’s Ainadamar, and as a soloist in the American Song Concert. Her performance in the Merola Grand Finale was praised as “vivid, beautiful, and sweeping” (Opera Tattler).

A frequent recitalist and concert soloist, Evans has recently performed Handel’s Messiah with the Dayton Philharmonic, Beethoven 9 with the National Orchestral Institute and Marin Alsop, Mahler IV with Avanti Orchestra and covered the solos of Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem with Fort Worth Opera. This fall, she performed a recital in collaboration with baritone Brandon Bell featuring the work of Toni Lester at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. In past seasons, Evans was featured on the PBS Special “Knox Opera for All!” with Knoxville Opera and was a guest soloist in Tulsa Opera’s MLK Day Parade, performing a short recital of repertoire by Black composers. Evans has performed the soprano solos in Haydn’s Kleine Orgelmesse, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Fauré’s Requiem.

A formidable vocal competitor, Evans was most recently named a Winner in the Tulsa District of the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition; she recently traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia to compete as the sole representative of the USA in the Opera Crown Competition finals with the Tbilisi State Orchestra. In 2023, she was awarded 2nd Place and the Soprano Prize in the George Shirley Vocal Competition, 3rd Place in the Washington International Competition, 1st Place in the Dallas Opera Guild Lonestar Vocal Competition, 3rd Place in the Midwest Region of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, a career grant from the Pasadena Vocal Competition, and a winner in the Tulsa District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. In 2022, she won 1st Place and Audience Choice in the James Toland Vocal Competition and an Encouragement Award from the Tennessee District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

Evans holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Music degree from the University of Tennessee Knoxville as part of the Knoxville Opera Studio. She is also a proud alumna of the Baltimore School for the Arts.