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discipline = "Mezzo-soprano"
primary_image = "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmopera/image/upload/v1611882164/media/2021/01/R._Nelson_Headshot_fqkkth.jpg"
primary_image_credit = ""
related_companies = ["scene/companies/cincinnati-opera.md", "scene/companies/glimmerglass-festival.md"]
slug = "reilly-nelson"
title = "Reilly Nelson"
website = "https://www.reillynelson.com/"
[[social_media]]
platform = "Instagram"
template = "social-media"
url = "https://www.instagram.com/sliceofrei/"

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Canadian mezzo-soprano Reilly Nelson brings her “distinctly warm and burnished” sound to stages of all sizes in North America and Europe. In the 2020/21 season, Ms. Nelson was a Young Artist with the Glimmerglass Opera Festival, a virtual iteration of the distinguished program that featured working sessions with Isabel Leonard, Francesca Zambello, Eric Owens, and Renée Fleming. In 2021, Ms. Nelson will sing Caterina in Mascagni’s _L’amico Fritz_ at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, and Mercédès in Cincinnati Opera’s production of _Carmen_, before joining Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists Programme at the Lunenberg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia.

In her 2019/20 season, Ms. Nelson sang Suzuki in Soo Opera Theater’s production of _Madama Butterfly_, Stephano in Cincinnati Opera’s _Roméo et Juliette_, and gave a workshop performance of William Menefield and Sheila Williams’ new opera, _Fierce_, with Cincinnati Opera’s Opera Fusion New Works.

Additional recent highlights include the Mother in _Amahl and the Night Visitors_ and Leah in _Enemies, A Love Story_, both with Kentucky Opera, and _Trouble in Tahiti_ with Lexington Philharmonic. Her continued relationship with Cincinnati Opera mirrors Ms. Reilly’s consistent balance of traditional and new operatic repertoire, including Flora in _La traviata_, Lupe Marin in _Frida_, a workshop performance of Ricky Ian Gordon’s _Intimate Apparel_, and the U.S. premiere of Julien Bilodeau’s _Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera_.

In addition to her theatrical work, Ms. Nelson is a seasoned concert artist. Recent credits include Mozart’s _Requiem_ with the Reno Philharmonic, a staged performance of Argento’s _From the Diary of Virginia Woolf_ with Cincinnati Chamber Opera and Cincinnati Song Initiative. With Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Ms. Nelson has performed Bach’s _St. Matthew Passion_ and _B minor Mass_, Mahler’s _Rückert-Lieder_, and cabaret songs of William Bolcom and Kurt Weill.

Ms. Nelson took second prize in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s prestigious Lotte Lenya Competition in 2018, after winning the Carolyn Weber Award in the same competition in 2016. She was the winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Middle/East Tennessee District.

Ms. Nelson was a young artist with The Glimmerglass Festival and Cincinnati Opera, and she was a studio artist at Kentucky Opera in 2019. She has studied at Eastman School of Music, Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and Tanglewood.