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The American mezzo-soprano and composer-performer, Ruston Ropac, obtained her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Redlands in Southern California, where she studied voice with Dr. Melissa Tosh and composition with Dr. Anthony Suter and André Myers; and her Master of Music degree in Contemporary Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with soprano Lucy Shelton.
Now based in New York City, Ruston Ropac is a dynamic musician committed to exploring eclectic vocal soundscapes. An alumna of the Contemporary Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, she brings her artistry to contemporary chamber music, early music, opera, and beyond.
An active contemporary chamber musician, Ruston Ropac has sung the world premieres of seventeen new works of chamber music. She debuted as a member of the BlackBox Ensemble in 2020, performing Fjóla Evans’s Perishable and Bethany Younge’s Bodyscape at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn. Other recent chamber performance highlights include Laurence Crane’s Weirdi and Eve Beglarian’s Fireside with Amalgama, works by ICEBERG composers as an extended roster member of the vocal sextet Ekmeles, a concert of new works by the composer Matt Simon, and a debut concert as part of the unaccompanied vocal duo TONGUE IN CHEEK with soprano Amber Evans, performing works by Saariaho, Fujikura, and more. In 2018, she made her commercial recording debut in the chorus of Poul Ruders’s opera The Thirteenth Child (Bridge Records).
Equally comfortable with early music, Ruston Ropac previously served as section leader and soloist in the Bach Collegium Choir at Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan, under the baton of Dr. Bálint Karosi. She sang as alto soloist in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243), the Mass in G major (BWV 236), and several cantatas. Additional soloist highlights with the Saint Peter's Bach Collegium include the oratorio roles of Climène in Charpentier’s Pastorale de Noël and Piacere in Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di anima, et di corpo, as well as the world premieres of William David Cooper’s Requiem and Dr. Bálint Karosi’s O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. In 2019, she joined guitarist and lutenist Peter Argondizza to present a concert of 17th century English and Italian repertoire; the duo also presented excerpts from the concert with ChamberQUEER and Roan Ma’s Vikas Project. She has also sung 16th and 17th century Italian works with the New York Continuo Collective, and performed the complete role of La Messaggera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with the Baroque Opera Workshop at Queens College.
As a composer-performer, Ruston Ropac specializes in vocal chamber music that experiments with theatrical elements and seeks to challenge the performer vocally and dramatically. In 2017, she wrote and premiered My Conscience is Showing!, a comedic “one-woman-show” piece for one unaccompanied singer playing three cartoonish characters, rapidly switching between each. In 2015, she sang the role of Georgiana in the world premiere of the chamber opera The Birthmark, a deconstructive adaptation of the short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, for which she wrote both the music and libretto, in Redlands, California. Her other works include film scores, electronic music, and instrumental chamber music, including a string quartet written for the Hugo Wolf Quartet.
Ruston Ropac recently recorded Juhi Bansal’s The Lost Country of Sight and Jessica Mays’ Elegy on the BlackBox Ensemble’s new album, "Elegy". Her performance engagements in the 2020-2021 season include a presentation of new works by composer Keyin Lou, and concert appearances with Ember Choral Ensemble. In January of 2021, Ms. Ropac joined the professional quartet at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Stamford, Connecticut, under organist and conductor Nathan Lively.
She currently lives in Manhattan and enjoys writing and playing Dungeons and Dragons in her spare time, including recording for the D&D podcast Nat 1 and Run. |
