Career in Opera

Susan Stokes has sung all her life. She grew up singing at home with her family, at church, and in choirs and music theater roles as a child. Her calling toward opera arrived the summer after her senior year of high school, when she received a scholarship to attend Opera in the Ozarks. She had never seen or heard an opera before, but the production was La Traviata, and by the end of the program, she knew she wanted to pursue opera as a career.

Susan changed her undergraduate major from biology pre-med to voice performance and earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas. She continued her education with a Master of Music (MM) in Voice Performance at Indiana University. Susan began her professional career in Chicago, continued it in San Francisco, and today resides in Tucson, Arizona.

Beyond the Stage

Outside of her career, Susan is vigorously faithful, and her life and work are shaped by that conviction. She writes poetry, finding in verse another way to engage with the same feeling that draws her to opera. Susan loves to travel with her husband, Gary, and daughter, Anna.

Susan loves making connections across communities and weaving together artists, congregations, schools, and neighbors in ways that build something larger than any one project.

Susan in Italy enjoying live music