Young American mezzo-soprano Michelle Rice brings to opera and concert a rich lyric mezzo voice and notable performance intensity. Her performance as Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Kennedy Center, conducted by Maestro Lorin Maazel, was described as “nuanced and sensitive” (Washington Post), “dramatically charged and vocally superlative” (dcist.com), and having a “firm, warm vocalism [that] made every phrase speak” (Baltimore Sun).  Other recent performances include Gertrude in Cleveland Opera’s Romeo et Juliette, Flora in La Traviata and Mrs. Segstrom in A Little Night Music with Opera Cleveland, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Annapolis Opera, Irene in Opera Vivente's Tamburlaine, the Mother in Hänsel and Gretel and the Gypsy Woman in Rachmaninoff's Aleko with Bel Cantanti, and Carmen in Olney Theatre’s production of Peter Brook’s adaptation Le tragédie de Carmen.

Ms. Rice continues to participate in exciting new operatic and theater works. Most significantly, she sang the title role in Clara, a new work by Robert Convery based on the life of Clara Schumann, commissioned for the Maryland Opera Studio. Of that performance, culturevulture.net heralded Ms. Rice as a “standout performer”, and the Washington Post declared, “Rice was…reflective and confident in both her singing and acting…excelled at dramatic subtleties and pierced scenes with her presence and clarity of voice -- especially compelling during revelatory biographical moments.” For the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, Ms. Rice performed in the opera pastiche Fatal Song or The Great Opera Murders, and for the UM Cabaret Today series she appeared in Noel & Cole: Songs of Noel Coward and Cole Porter. She also appeared in Holy Hell, a two-man play in a festival of new works for the Theater Alliance and Madcap Players in Washington D.C. Later this season she will perform the role of Anna in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove's Tobias and the Angel.

She performed the mezzo solo in a lauded performance of Verdi’s Requiem with established artists James Morris and Sharon Sweet, conducted by James Ross, about which the Washington Post remarked, “Rice [sang] credibly and fervently, in true Verdian style, as though she'd just stepped out of ‘Aida.’” Further concert performances include the role of Albina in Rossini's La donna del lago, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the alto solo in Mozart's Krönungs-Messe, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Vivaldi’s Gloria, and several recitals, with groups including Washington Concert Opera, Ovation Artists, the Cathedral of St. Matthew Concert Series, and Friends of the Arts. Ms. Rice's concert venues include Washington Concert Opera, Annapolis Opera, the University of Maryland and University of Washington Symphonies, the Seattle Early Music Guild, and the Seattle Symphony Summer Sings program.

Ms. Rice is a graduate of the University of Washington (Bachelors Degree in Vocal Performance, scholarship) and the University of Maryland (Masters Degree in Opera Performance with the Maryland Opera Studio, assistantship), where she studied with Delores Ziegler and Leon Major. Ms. Rice placed first in the 2006 Bell T. Ritchie Awards and won prizes from the American Bach Society, the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition, the Seattle Musical Art Society, and the Mary Levine Scholarship Fund. Ms. Rice has twice been a finalist in the Liederkranz Vocal Competition.