In 2021, soprano Rachel Liss completed her Masters in Voice and Opera at the Mannes School of Music. She currently studies under the tutelage of Arthur Levy, and previously studied with Ruth Falcon.  Her most recent operatic role was with Chautauqua Institution, where she was seen as the Sandmann in Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel. Prior to this performance, she performed with Mannes Opera, where, under the baton of conductor Daniela Candillari, she reprised a role she had earlier performed with the Oberlin Opera Theatre -- that of The Governess in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.  She has also been seen as a Graduate and Dancer in Mannes Opera’s production of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene.  Ms. Liss was heard at the Chautauqua Institution’s virtual festival in both 2020 and 2021, and was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Michel Sénéchal Memorial Scholarship to attend Classic Lyric Arts in France for the summer of 2019.

Before returning to her beloved New York City, Ms. Liss attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with a minor in Musicology.  While at Oberlin, Ms. Liss was not only heard as The Governess in The Turn of the Screw, conducted by Christopher Larkin, but was also cast as Masha in Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop, and performed in Gene Scheer’s Words into Sound project, in coordination with Joseph Mechavich and Jake Heggie.  She also sang as a soloist in F. J. Haydn’s The Creation with the Oberlin Mozart Players, and, for two consecutive years, in G. F. Handel’s Messiah with Credo Orchestra.  Equally at home on the recital stage, Ms. Liss was additionally selected to perform as a soloist in a conservatory-wide concert series, and she sang not only on her own recitals, but as an invited guest on the recitals of her colleagues.  She was also chosen to sing on master classes given by Marilyn Horne and George Shirley. 

During the time she was at Oberlin, Ms. Liss supplemented her training by attending prestigious festivals.  At the Miami Music Festival, she performed the title role in Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Bradley Moore in 2017, and portrayed Flora in The Turn of The Screw, conducted by Caren Levine in 2016.  At the Arezzo Opera Festival in 2015, she was seen as Elena in C. W. von Gluck’s Paride ed Elena and as Giannetta in Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.  In connection with these programs, she also sang on master classes given by Anthony Manoli, Eglise Gutierrez, and Jennifer Williams, and performed in recitals throughout Miami and central Italy.

As a young singer, Ms. Liss attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts, the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division, and the New York City Opera Seminar for High School Students.  During her years at LaGuardia High School, Ms. Liss performed as the soprano soloist in both Francis Poulenc’s Stabat Mater and in Leonard Bernstein’s Make Our Garden Grow, and she made her operatic debut in the title role of Hélène in Jacques Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène.  It was also at LaGuardia High School where Ms. Liss won the New Triad for the Collaborative Arts competition, where she became one of four singers to work with Arlene Shrut during the New Triad residency.  These training programs prepared her to attend the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 2012 and 2013, and gave her the foundation she needed for her future in music.

Ms. Liss’s love for music began early. She started taking piano lessons at age six and was on the stage in musical theatre productions by age seven.  Her true passion for and commitment to classical singing developed when she joined the Brooklyn Youth Chorus in 2008, where she sang as a member of their select choruses for three years. During that time, she performed in all of New York City’s most renowned concert halls, including Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, the David Koch Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and St. Anne’s Warehouse.  It was also through the Brooklyn Youth Chorus that Ms. Liss developed a passion for both canonical and new music.  As a chorus member, she sang Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Lorin Maazel, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 8 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, and Tell the Way, a festival of new works curated by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Nico Muhly and The Kronos Quartet.  Through her work with the Chorus, Ms. Liss sang on two albums and performed on television shows such as The David Letterman Show and Good Morning America.

As a Musicologist, Ms. Liss has written program notes for the Cleveland Chamber Choir and the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra.  She has a particular interest in Gustav Mahler, his relationship with Arnold Schoenberg, and how the two interacted with the legacy of Richard Wagner.  She also worked as a private teacher of voice and piano, as an Artist Manager with Park Avenue Artists, where she served on the teams of Joshua Bell, Larisa Martínez, and Time for Three, as the Production and Operations Manager for The New York Choral Society, and at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where she processed the collections of mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, conductor Edward Laufer, and composer Earle Brown.  She has additionally aided in the research of countless other collections, including the Set and Costume Design and the Lou Reed Collections, curated an exhibit on the Marilyn Horne Collection, and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, organized and hosted a virtual author talk-back and book club on The Magic of Beverly Sills by Nancy Guy.  In her role as Artist Manager, she served as Project Coordinator on Time for Three’s GRAMMY-Award winning album, Letters for the Future. In her spare time, she enjoys running, accompanying her friends on the piano, watching stand-up comedy, and cuddling with pandemic puppies.