ALYSSA WILLS

Bio

Alyssa Wills, soprano, is the founder of The Sparrow Initiative, a performance group that uses the arts to raise awareness for the needs of the community. In 2019, The Sparrow Initiative produced their inaugural concert, A Woman’s Voice, to raise awareness for the problem of human trafficking in Orange County, CA. Her other community outreach work includes performances with the Skid Row-based choir Urban Voices Project; performances at local schools and hospitals as the group leader of "The Hollywood Trio" through the Gluck Fellowship program at USC; and fundraising concerts to benefit Syrian refugees, homeless shelters, and the Nepal earthquake survivors.

Ms. Wills’ concert work includes The Impresario and Other Opera Favorites produced by The Sparrow Initiative; a program of songs and letters of Emily Dickinson through Pasadena’s Boston Court Emerging Artist Recital Series; Bernstein in Concert with the Los Angeles-based Opera Buffs, Inc;  Quartetto and Opera in the Park with the Palm Springs Opera Guild;  the role of Micaëla in the Opera Buffs' gala fundraiser, Carmen in Concert, alongside Rod Gilfry, Charles Castronovo, and Kelley O'Connor; the role of Susan B. Anthony in Laura Karpman's Balls, presented in The Industry's First Take Concert; and the world premiere of Nimbus by Rand Steiger at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with The Industry; and  the role of Marthe Marker in the USC premier concert reading of the new opera Frau Schindler by Thomas Morse and Ken Cazan. Past performances as a soloist include recitals at the Tanglewood Music Festival, concerts with the USC Concert Band, and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem at the Bob Cole Conservatory

On the opera stage, Ms. Wills has been seen debuting the role of CEO in LTD Opera's The Janitor; performing the role of Mother in Lyric Opera of Orange County’s Hansel and Gretel; the role of Marcellina in a tour of Figaro's American Adventure with LA Opera's Outreach and Education Program; the role of Fiordiligi in LTD Opera's inaugural performance of Mozart's Così fan tutte;  the role of Ariadne in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at the USC Thornton School of Music;; the role of Miss Crisp in Henze’s The English Cat and the role of Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at USC; the role of Lady Billows in excerpts of Britten's Albert Herring with the TMC Orchestra as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center; the role of the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with the Bob Cole Opera Institute at California State University, Long Beach; as well as numerous opera scenes at the Aspen Music Festival.  

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Ms. Wills was honored to be a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as well as a finalist in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition for two consecutive years. She was awarded third place in the NATS Gwendolyn Roberts Young Artist Competition, a Young Musicians Foundation Scholarship, and the Theodore Presser Scholarship in Music. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. She holds an MM in Vocal Arts from USC and a BM Vocal Performance degree from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach.

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As a teacher, Ms. Wills has run her own private voice studio for over ten years. Additionally, she has taught at schools throughout Orange County, such as Musika Studio and OCEAA. Currently, she enjoys her position as a Classical Voice Conservatory teacher at Orange County School of the Arts