Chelsea Hollow
Coloratura soprano Chelsea Hollow is known throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for her “soaring high range” and “stage panache!” Locally, she performs with companies including The San Francisco Opera Guild, West Bay Opera, West Edge Opera, The Lamplighters, Pocket Opera, and 42nd Street Moon. A passionate performer of new music, Chelsea has built a reputation for performing new works with confidence and artistic expression. In summer of 2017, Chelsea recreated the role of Elizabeth Frankenstein in the West Coast Premiere of Libby Larsen’s Frankenstein with West Edge Opera. In early Fall 2016, Chelsea made her international debut in Guadalajara, MX singing the role of Mina Harker in Ibarra’s Despertar al Sueño with Escenia Ensamble in collaboration with West Bay Opera. Last year, Ms. Hollow returned to Mexico to perform the role of Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire (Previn) with Escenia Ensamble and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the State of Chihuahua. Chelsea was thrilled to join Pittsburgh Festival Opera to cover the role of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. There, she also performed the role of Joujou in Lehár’s The Merry Widow. More traditional roles include Die Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte/Mozart), Amy March (Little Women/Adamo), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail/Mozart), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann/Offenbach), Lakmé (Lakmé/Delibes), Lucy (The Telephone/Menotti), Marie (La Fille du régiment/Donizetti), and Madame Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor/Mozart).
Concert specialties include Mozart’s concert aria Popoli di Tessaglia, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Allegri’s Miserere, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. Recent soloist appearances include Carmina Burana (Orff) with the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra and the Concerto for Two Orchestras (Gubaidulina) with the Berkeley Symphony. In Fall 2014, Chelsea was recognized as the winner of the BluePrint New Music Concerto Competition where she performed Schönberg’s rarely performed work, Herzgewächse under the baton of Maestro Nicole Paiement. Other appearances include the Moorpark Symphony Orchestra’s Annual Concerto & Aria Concert where she was featured as the competition winner. Musical theater experience includes Cunégonde (Candide/Bernstein), Carroll Beamish (Very Warm for May/Kern), Amelia (Bernarda Alba/LaChiusa), and Rapunzel (Into the Woods/Sondheim).
Ms. Hollow works with local San Francisco Bay Area composers regularly to premiere art song and operas. Joining West Edge Opera’s Snapshot program, she “steered the performance,” of Stephen Eddins’s Why I Live at the P.O. with “indignation that struck the perfect balance of martyrdom and pathos.” In Spring 2013, Chelsea joined the Hot Air Festival as the soprano soloist in Benjamin C.S. Boyle’s To One In Paradise. Chelsea holds a Master of Music Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music Degree from San Francisco State University.
Chelsea strives to be an operatic activist, creating art that makes her audience think collectively and creatively. In this time of political, environmental, and social unrest, Ms. Hollow cherishes her charge as an artist to be a voice for the voiceless. In 2019, she and pianist, Sophie Xuefei Zhang toured with their recital Voice for the Voiceless: Women, celebrating the feminist movement in contemporary classical music. In 2020, Chelsea co-founded Concert Rebels, an organization which works with performing artists and activists to fund, commission, and curate classical recitals with a purpose to amplify marginalized voices, activate audiences, and inspire collective growth.