American coloratura soprano DAWNA RAE WARREN has established herself as an incredibly versatile performer, bringing a knack for captivating storytelling and musical sensitivity to all of her repertoire: opera, new music, Baroque music, jazz, and Golden Age musical theater.

Upcoming and recent engagements:  soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Toledo Symphony; Carmina Burana with University of Wyoming, Laramie; Bach's Mass in B Minor with Longmont Symphony; From Shakespeare to Superheroes with Symphony of the Rockies; Handel's Messiah with Eugene Concert Choir and Orchestra;  Drusilla/Virtu in L'incoronazione di Poppea and Calliope in Handel's Alceste with The In Series; Musetta in La Boheme with Eklund Opera, Lady with a Hand Mirror in Postcard from Morocco with Eklund Opera; Violetta (cover) in La Traviata with Eklund Opera; Abigail Williams in The Crucible at the University of Kentucky Opera Theater; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia; Barbarina in Figaro in Four Quartets with The In Series; Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Resonanz Opera; Königen der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte at Blooming Voce Summer Opera Workshop; and The First Wood Sprite in Rusalka at the Toronto Summer Opera Workshop.

A champion of living composers, Ms. Warren has been a collaborator in Cleveland Opera Theater’s New Opera Works Festival for several years where she has premiered pieces such as Griffin Candey’s Bernarda Alba (Adela) and Dawn Sonntag’s Verlorene Heimat (Hedwig).  Other new music premieres include: Michael Udow's A Wall of Two (Henia) and Mark Geiger's Goddess' People (Priestess ).  In addition to premiering new operas, she also actively works with composers to record and workshop their compositions throughout their writing process, taking joy in watching a piece of music shape and change as it comes to fruition.

The soprano has been the recipient of awards such as the 1st Place Graduate Winner in the CU Boulder Honors Concerto Competition (2023), Third Place of the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition (2023), 1st Place Graduate Winner in the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition, the Mel and Jena Hakola Prize for Vocal and Academic Excellence, the MacDowell Vocal Scholarship, and the VOCI Scholarship.

On the concert stage Warren has performed as a featured soloist with the Longmont Symphony Orchestra in their 2022 Pops Concert, singing "O Mio Babbino Caro" and "Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille," and also as soloist in Handel's Messiah.  She has also been heard as the soloist in Faure’s Requiem and has appeared with the Baldwin Wallace Bach Choir in the St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, and Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem.

Currently based in Cleveland, Ms. Warren obtained her Artist Diploma at CU Boulder, the Master’s Degree at the University of Kentucky and Bachelor’s Degree at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music.