2025/2026 Season
1st Place Winner | Opera Ebony Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition
Finalist | James Toland Vocal Arts Elizabeth Greenfield Award
SIEGFRIED REVIEW from opera gene “Tagert’s voice and singing was rapturous, a perfect fit, and a total delight”
Click for Recent reviews from Opera News and THE Fargo InFORUM
Praised as a “beautifully trained soprano with a pleasing touch of metal” (Opera Today), Alicia Russell Tagert ended the 2024-25 season by creating the role of Rafaela in the world premiere of The House of Mango Street at the beloved Glimmerglass Festival. In her second season as a Resident Artist at GGF, she also sings in the ensemble of Eric Sean Fogel’s new production of The Rake’s Progress, and as a solo artist in a Midday Music concert on June 26 and a collaborative concert on August 14. In spring 2024, Alicia sang a solo recital in her new hometown of Richmond, Virginia on March 1 and later in the 2024 summer season, Alicia debuted with Charlottesville Opera as Marian Paroo (cover) in The Music Man. Continually proving herself as an adept musician, during her debut with Virgina Opera as Waldvögel in their 2023 touring production of Siegfried, she also learned and sang Brünnhilde in one performance on 5 hours’ notice. In the summer of 2023, Alicia appeared with the Glimmerglass Festival, singing Queen of Eldorado in Francesca Zambello’s celebrated Candide, and for select July performances she returned to the role of Musetta in La bohème. In April 2023, she debuted Gretel in an English translation of Hansel and Gretel with Opera Birmingham. In a glittering season of debuts in 2022-23, she debuted at Cincinnati Opera as Morgan in Fierce as part of the anticipated world premiere, and “brought cheers from the opening-night audience” (OperaNews), prior her role debut of a “bright and effortless soprano” as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro in a return to Fargo-Moorhead Opera’s stage in North Dakota (Fargo Inforum).
Alicia was a Gate City Bank Young Artist with Fargo-Moorhead Opera in winter 2021, performing Maya in Three Way and Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In the 2019–2020 season, Ms. Tagert returned to Toledo Opera to debut the role of Musetta in La bohème, after spending the 2018-19 season as their soprano resident artist. She 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 due to COVID-19. Her past performances include Musetta|La bohème, Samantha/Silver Dollar|The Ballad of Baby Doe and Frasquita|Carmen at Toledo Opera. Her numerous credits at the Seagle Festival include the title role in Robert Carl’s workshop of Harmony, Daisy Buchanan|The Great Gatsby and Pamina|Die Zauberflöte. She has also appeared, as Donna Elvira|Don Giovanni, the title role in Savitri, and Elaine|Later the Same Evening with Northwestern University Opera Theater; Sylvie|Freedom Ride (workshop) with MassOpera; and Rosalinde|Die Fledermaus with Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
Equally recognized for her concert performances, Ms. Tagert debuted in 2024 with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra singing excerpts from Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road. In 2022, she debuted with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra as the soprano soloist 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). She was scheduled to appear in the 2020 season as the soprano soloist Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Highland Park Symphony Orchestra in Chicago (cancelled due to COVID-19). 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 Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, 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, Ms. Tagert’s 2025 awards include 1st place winner in the BMVC Opera Ebony Competition, semi-finalist in the distinguished Lotte Lenya Compeition (previous finalist in 2023), and an award in the National Arts and Letters Competition DC Chapter (previous Third Prize winner in 2024). Her other collective awards include Second Place in the Heafner/Williams Competition (2024), semi-finalist in the Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Singer of the Year Competition, and a finalist the 2022 Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition. She is a four time award winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Her prizes include an Encouragement Award in the 2022 (South Carolina district), a twice awarded Regional Finalist in the Southeastern Region in 2021 (Georgia District) and 2020 (North Carolina District), as well as an Encouragement Award in 2019 (Middle/East Tennessee District). She was a semi-finalist in the 2019 Orpheus Vocal Competition. She also won the 2018 Northwestern University Concerto/Aria Competition and received the Ginger Meyer Scholarship in the 2018 Musicians Club of Women Competition. In 2018, she won the Evanston Musicians’ Club Scholarship and was a semi-finalist in the 2017 Bel Canto Foundation Competition. She holds a Master of Music from Northwestern University and Bachelor of Music from Furman University.
Alicia Russell Tagert is a proud member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity Theta Lambda and Delta Delta Delta Sorority Gamma Xi. She was honored as one of Delta Delta Delta’s “33 Under 33” promising young leaders and selected as a nationally Distinguished Delta. Alicia is a firm supporter of racial equity and diversity in the arts and works with Seagle Festival as a DEI Taskforce member to partner with arts leadership in creating opportunity for artists of diverse racial backgrounds. In her private time, Alicia enjoys reading long books, fellowshipping with her church family, hiking in the mountains with her husband, baking sourdough, and drinking craft beer and fine wine in her northern Virginia home.
To explore Alicia’s full repertoire, click below
Photography by Jessica Osber http://www.osberphotos.com
