ABOUT

With a “lower extension that has to be heard to be believed” (Seen and Heard International), American contralto Emily Geller is known for her vivid portrayals, thrilling vocals, and “hilariously over-the-top” (Opera Magazine) performances. 

 

Emily opens her 2026/27 season with a return to Salt Marsh Opera, where she will reprise her acclaimed portrayal of the villainous Ježibaba in Dvořák's Rusalka. Later this fall, she stars as Miss Todd in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief with Amelia Island Opera, marking her fourth company debut in 2026. In 2027, she reunites with three frequent collaborators: Pacific Opera Project as Suzy in Puccini’s La rondine, Gulfshore Opera as Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Opera Modesto, where she will sing the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame. On the concert stage, Emily reprises her “superb” (Blogfinger) reading of Handel’s Messiah with Pacific Opera Project, and returns to Taconic Opera for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. 

 

Last season, Emily made a number of anticipated company debuts, beginning with Opera Modesto as Ježibaba in Rusalka. She also made her debut with Beth Morrison Projects, singing the world premiere of Harriet Steinke’s Monna Innominata at New York’s National Sawdust. She made another company debut in the summer, when she joined Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre for two Gilbert and Sullivan operettas: Trial by Jury, singing Counsel for the Plaintiff, and Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, a role she also sang earlier in the season for Salt Marsh Opera. Her portrayal of Ruth — her 17th Gilbert and Sullivan production — was hailed as “comedic gold” by the Utah Theatre Arts Journal, which also praised her “clear and beautiful” vocals.  

 

Other recent engagements include the Marquise of Berkenfield in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment with Opera Santa Barbara and Opera Company of Middlebury, Second Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Tri-Cities Opera, Ježibaba in Rusalka with Gulfshore Opera, a “beautifully sung” (Broadway World) Page of Herodias in Strauss’ Salome with Union Avenue Opera, Prince Orlofsky in J. Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with Pacific Opera Project, and Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, a co-production from Opera Las Vegas and Pacific Opera Project. 

 

A frequent performer of new music, Emily garnered rave reviews for her portrayal of Sylvia in the world premiere of Chunky in Heat, a “uniformly superb” (Observer) multi-composer project with Experiments in Opera and Contemporaneous. Opera News singled her out for the “layers of complexity” she brought to her character, while ConcertoNet praised her “thrilling contralto, tripping off high and low notes as she tips around in her spikes." She has also performed Elder Constance in Matthew Aucoin’s Second Nature with Opera Fayetteville, Scholar in John Austin’s Heloise and Abelard with Center for Contemporary Opera, and Wife in Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop with Opera on the James. 

        

No stranger to the concert stage, Emily’s recent engagements include Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with the Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York City and Cappella Cantorum, Honegger’s King David and Bach’s Schwingt freudig euch empor with the Westchester Oratorio Society, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël with the Putnam Chorale, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and Duruflé’s Requiem with The Taghkanic Chorale, Elgar’s The Music Makers with Cappella Cantorum, Mozart’s Requiem at Hopkins Center for the Arts with the Dartmouth Glee Club and Taconic Opera, Handel’s Messiah with the MidAtlantic Symphony Orchestra, Pentangle’s Classical Music Series, and Taconic Opera, and Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium at the Anderson Center for the Arts in Binghamton, NY.

 

A native New Yorker, Emily earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory under the Ruth S. Morse Scholarship and her Master of Music in Opera from Binghamton University with a full assistantship. She makes her home in New York City.