Cara Bender is a soprano hailing from Corning, NY. She was a finalist in the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition this season and received an honorable mention for The American Prize Chamber Music Award. Last summer, Cara won the Songfest Graham Johnson Art Song Prize, and performed a recital curated and coached by Graham Johnson. Cara recently performed as Contessa Almaviva and Donna Anna in abridged versions of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni with The Florentine Opera Company. She covered Masha in The Queen of Spades with Des Moines Metro Opera. Other recent performances include Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Lady with a Cake Box (Postcard from Morocco), the Mother and Witch (Hansel and Gretel), and Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw).