Praised for her “big, beautifully projected voice with an attractive edge and sparkle” (Arts Knoxville), soprano Adia Evans is quickly establishing herself as an up-and-coming talent in the opera and concert world. A recent 2021 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Evans was featured in several university productions. Evans also worked with Knoxville opera companies, covering Annie in Marble City Opera’s world premiere production of Frank Pesci’s Royal Flush and covering Nedda in the company’s Pagliacci. Evans was also featured as La Zia in Knoxville Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly. This past November, she performed the role of Bastienne in Bastien und Bastienne with University of Illinois Springfield. Evans is now a 2021 -2022 Resident Artist with Opera Columbus, where she covered the titular Tosca, and covered Mary Johnson and performed Lucy in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers. Evans will also perform the roles of Vanqui in Leslie Burrs’ Vanqui and Lucy in Fellow Travelers with Opera Columbus and will compete as a finalist in the Lewisville Lake Symphony International Competition and Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition in March 2022. She will spend the summer as a young artist with the Merola Opera Center where she will play Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte.

In the 2021-2022 season, Evans was awarded an Encouragement Award from the Tennessee District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Previously, she won both Second Place and the Audience Choice Award in the 2020 Harlem Opera Theater Vocal Competition and both Fourth place and Audience Choice in the 2021 Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing Vocal Competition.