Hope Nelson is a mezzo-soprano from Pacifica, California. She is currently a candidate for the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studies with soprano Rhoslyn Jones. She holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM ‘22) and University of British Columbia (BM ‘20).

Upcoming in spring and summer 2024: in April, she will return to a favorite role, the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, in her company debut with Pocket Opera. In May, she will sing her final performance as a student at SFCM, in selected scenes with orchestra as the Composer in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In June she will join cellist Isaac Pastor-Chermak and pianist Alison Lee to perform the Brahms Zwei Gesänge, op. 91 at various venues around the Bay Area, culminating in a studio recording that will be available for purchase in 2025. Following this, she looks forward to spending eight weeks as a fellow at the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West.

In the fall of 2023, she performed with Solo Opera as Princess Tilda in the West Coast premiere of Lori Laitman and Dana Gioia’s The Three Feathers, and was also engaged at Opera San José covering the legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade as she sang the role of herself in a workshop of Shinji Eshima and Tony Asaro’s Zheng. 

In June 2023 she made her debut with Long Beach Opera in the final program of their season, THE RECITAL. She sang Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin in a dynamic new production and staging imagined and co-directed by filmmaker Tom C. Jones and multidisciplinary artist Raviv Ullman. The cycle was presented alongside Jones’s acclaimed short film Christopher at Sea (2022). Following this, she returned to the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory to play Liza Elliot in Kurt Weill’s Lady in the Dark, directed by John Matsumoto Giampetro, and participate in a recital curated and conceptualized by director Marcus Shields.

In the spring of 2023, she sang the role of the Secretary of the Consulate in Menotti’s The Consul, directed by Patricia Racette at SFCM, L’écureuil in Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortilèges, also at SFCM, and returned to the role of Dritte Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in her concert debut with the Santa Rosa Symphony.

In 2022, she sang the role of Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, in a new production by directors James Darrah and Raviv Ullman at SFCM, as well as Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with the SFCM Baroque Ensemble. She spent the summer at the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory, where she sang the role of the Fox in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Timothy Muffitt and directed by John Matsumoto Giampetro, and collaborated with faculty singers and piano duo M&M on the Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer Op.52.

She is a two-time winner of the San Francisco District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (‘24, ‘23), as well as an encouragement award recipient at the regional level (‘23) and district level (‘22). She has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses given by Frederica von Stade, Jake Heggie, Susan Graham, Joyce DiDonato, Ian Bostridge, and Patricia Racette.

During her time at the University of British Columbia, she was a recipient of the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow award and studied with soprano and director Nancy Hermiston. With the UBC Opera Ensemble, she performed as Nicklausse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Dritte Dame in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and Madeleine in Kevin Puts' Silent Night. She was proud to represent UBC on tour in the Czech Republic, at Vancouver’s annual Bard on the Beach festival, and as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

She is passionate about arts education, and feels forever indebted to the artistic community at the Spindrift School of Performing Arts in Pacifica, CA that educated, supported, and raised her.

She enjoys sitting on patios, eating olives, backpacking, heartbreaking literature, and the ocean.