About Alex
Coloratura soprano and Philadelphia native Alexandra Gilliam‘s upcoming performance engagements include appearances as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Delaware Valley Opera Company (June 2024), Adina in L’elisir d’amore with New Jersey Lyric Opera (April 2024), and as The Baroness von Krakenfeldt in The Grand Duke with The Savoy Company, with appearances at the Suzanne Roberts Theater (Philadelphia, April 2024), Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA, May 2024), and at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, UK (August 2024). She will also cover the role of Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Wilmington Concert Opera in September 2024, and perform as a member of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir in their presentation of the Mozart Requiem at the Kimmel Center and at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Nathalie Stutzmann.
Recent performance engagements include Love Went A-Riding: A Valentine’s Day Recital, a collaborative performance with Clipper Erickson, pianist presented by Music for the Soul as a celebration of Black and female composers. Recent operatic roles include Gilda in Rigoletto with New Jersey Lyric Opera, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with The Savoy Company, and Yum-Yum in The Mikado with Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society. She also presented a self-produced solo recital entitled An Evening of Song in January 2023, which enjoyed a world premiere of “Three e.e. cummings Songs” by Reese Revak, composer and pianist, who performed on the recital.
A passionate concert and oratorio performer, Gilliam has been featured numerous times as soprano soloist with The Northeast Oratorio Society in their presentations of Bach cantatas, including BWV 52: Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht and BWV 210: O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit with the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. She has also appeared as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah in presentations of the piece by The Orchestra Society of Philadelphia and Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society (2021 – 2023), and the role of Lehár’s eponymous Merry Widow with the Delaware Valley Opera Company (June 2022), where she also covered the role of Olympia in the company’s production of Les Contes d’Hoffman that same year.
A champion of new music, Gilliam places high priority on her work with living composers and has participated in numerous world premieres, recordings, and workshops. In addition to premiering Reese Revak’s e.e. cummings song cycle in January of 2023, she debuted the role of Angel in Les Thaler’s opera, The Devil Loves a Comedy in 2017. Gilliam also was featured as The Lark in Festival Opera’s 2016 presentation of Wang Jie’s Rated R for Rat. Furthermore, Gilliam’s collaboration with composer Dana Kaufman and renowned educator and composer John Heiss resulted in an acclaimed premiere of Kaufman’s piece, “On the Move (I rörelse);” the piece and recording thereof were the winner of the 2015 Women Composers Festival New England Score Call.
In addition to her solo performance work, Gilliam is deeply passionate about choral work. She made her Sydney Opera House debut in the summer of 2015 as a featured soloist at the Australian International Music Festival with acclaimed Boston-based festival choir, Northern Voices, conducted by Erica J. Washburn. She has also been a featured soloist at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts at the Kimmel Cultural Campus. Currently, she serves as soprano section leader and staff cantor at Our Mother of Consolation Parish in Chestnut Hill, PA.
Gilliam has participated in several prestigious festivals, including the Taos Opera Institute and the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. She was the recipient of the Barry Manilow Scholarship and Phyllis C. Wattis Memorial Scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, from which she received her Master of Music degree in 2017 under the tutelage of acclaimed mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook. Gilliam received her Bachelor of Music degree in 2015 from the New England Conservatory of Music, graduating with honors from the studio of tenor Bradley Williams. There, she was a Merit Scholarship recipient and was inducted into the Iota chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda honors society in recognition of her academic standing at the institution.
About Alex
Coloratura soprano and Philadelphia native Alexandra Gilliam‘s upcoming performance engagements include appearances as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Delaware Valley Opera Company (June 2024), Adina in L’elisir d’amore with New Jersey Lyric Opera (April 2024), and as The Baroness von Krakenfeldt in The Grand Duke with The Savoy Company, with appearances at the Suzanne Roberts Theater (Philadelphia, April 2024), Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA, May 2024), and at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, UK (August 2024). She will also cover the role of Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Wilmington Concert Opera in September 2024, and perform as a member of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir in their presentation of the Mozart Requiem at the Kimmel Center and at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Nathalie Stutzmann.
Recent performance engagements include Love Went A-Riding: A Valentine’s Day Recital, a collaborative performance with Clipper Erickson, pianist presented by Music for the Soul as a celebration of Black and female composers. Recent operatic roles include Gilda in Rigoletto with New Jersey Lyric Opera, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with The Savoy Company, and Yum-Yum in The Mikado with Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society. She also presented a self-produced solo recital entitled An Evening of Song in January 2023, which enjoyed a world premiere of “Three e.e. cummings Songs” by Reese Revak, composer and pianist, who performed on the recital.
A passionate concert and oratorio performer, Gilliam has been featured numerous times as soprano soloist with The Northeast Oratorio Society in their presentations of Bach cantatas, including BWV 52: Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht and BWV 210: O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit with the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. She has also appeared as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah in presentations of the piece by The Orchestra Society of Philadelphia and Bucks County Gilbert & Sullivan Society (2021 – 2023), and the role of Lehár’s eponymous Merry Widow with the Delaware Valley Opera Company (June 2022), where she also covered the role of Olympia in the company’s production of Les Contes d’Hoffman that same year.
A champion of new music, Gilliam places high priority on her work with living composers and has participated in numerous world premieres, recordings, and workshops. In addition to premiering Reese Revak’s e.e. cummings song cycle in January of 2023, she debuted the role of Angel in Les Thaler’s opera, The Devil Loves a Comedy in 2017. Gilliam also was featured as The Lark in Festival Opera’s 2016 presentation of Wang Jie’s Rated R for Rat. Furthermore, Gilliam’s collaboration with composer Dana Kaufman and renowned educator and composer John Heiss resulted in an acclaimed premiere of Kaufman’s piece, “On the Move (I rörelse);” the piece and recording thereof were the winner of the 2015 Women Composers Festival New England Score Call.
In addition to her solo performance work, Gilliam is deeply passionate about choral work. She made her Sydney Opera House debut in the summer of 2015 as a featured soloist at the Australian International Music Festival with acclaimed Boston-based festival choir, Northern Voices, conducted by Erica J. Washburn. She has also been a featured soloist at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts at the Kimmel Cultural Campus. Currently, she serves as soprano section leader and staff cantor at Our Mother of Consolation Parish in Chestnut Hill, PA.
Gilliam has participated in several prestigious festivals, including the Taos Opera Institute and the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. She was the recipient of the Barry Manilow Scholarship and Phyllis C. Wattis Memorial Scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, from which she received her Master of Music degree in 2017 under the tutelage of acclaimed mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook. Gilliam received her Bachelor of Music degree in 2015 from the New England Conservatory of Music, graduating with honors from the studio of tenor Bradley Williams. There, she was a Merit Scholarship recipient and was inducted into the Iota chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda honors society in recognition of her academic standing at the institution.