MEZZO-SOPRANO SAM RAUCH is a compelling and versatile performer whose musical explorations center on creating meaningfully connective performances. Praised for deeply thoughtful musicianship and emotional honesty, they are a strong advocate for contemporary and underperformed repertoire, as well as the re-examination of narratives found within the traditional canon.

 

Summer of 2022 saw Sam performing in Toronto Summer Music Festival’s ReGeneration concert series under an Art of Song fellowship; other concert appearances have included excerpts from György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragmente, Rosa Badalla’s solo cantata O fronde care with the Bard College Baroque Ensemble, as well as appearing as an alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with The Orchestra Now. In collaboration with Alexis Seminario, they curated and performed in the digital-release concert “I Bear Your Colors”, a program recorded at the Vanderbilt Historic Mansion celebrating the unique relationships between queer women though American art song and chamber music. Sam was a featured recitalist in 2021 with ENY-NATS as the winner of their collegiate division art song competition, and has curated and performed in multiple recitals through Bard College which highlight underrepresented works and composers.

 

Recent operatic credits include Skokánek/Datel in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts; Anna 1 in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Toby in Giancarlo Menotti’s The Medium for a hybrid live and recorded double bill performance with Bard’s Vocal Arts Program; Zweite Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Bloomington Chamber Opera; and Isolier in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory with Chicago Summer Opera. Sam also spent the last three years engaged as a teaching artist with ROK (Reimagining Opera for Kids), bringing opera to schools and community spaces in their fully-digital productions of Gabriela Ortiz’s Ana y su sombra and Chappell Kingsland’s The Firebringers.

 

A native of southeastern Ohio, Sam holds a Bachelor’s degree in voice from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and recently completed their Master’s degree at the Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program (VAP) under the artistic direction of Stephanie Blythe and the vocal guidance of Richard Cox.