Hope Nelson is a mezzo-soprano from San Francisco, California. She is currently a candidate for the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Rhoslyn Jones. She is thrilled to return to Chautauqua to sing Liza Elliot in Kurt Weill’s Lady in the Dark. Last year, she sang the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen on the amphitheater stage. She recently made her debut with Long Beach Opera singing the entirety of Schubert‘s Die schöne Müllerin in a new staging. Past roles include Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, The Secretary of the Consulate in Menotti’s The Consul, and Dritte Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. This year, she was awarded an encouragement award at the Western Region of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, after advancing as a winner of the San Francisco district. She holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM ‘22) and University of British Columbia (BM ‘20).

Hope is the recipient of the Katherine Karslake White School of Music Scholarship and the Bennett and Mary Jo Burgoon Memorial Scholarship.