Rachel Elizabeth Watkins is an arts administrator, voice pedagogue, and professor with extensive experience in teaching at the professional-level, program development, and institutional leadership in higher education and nonprofit arts organizations. A graduate of the Yale School of Music with postgraduate training at the Opernhaus Zürich, she currently serves as Professor of Voice and Opera Workshop at Houston Christian University, where she teaches applied voice and directs opera productions. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the International School of the Voice. Ms. Watkins has held faculty appointments at the Curtis Institute of Music and has served in senior administrative roles overseeing curriculum design, student learning outcomes, budgeting, grant writing, and long-term strategic planning. In 2019, she was selected as one of the final two candidates for Director of the Yale School of Music Graduate Opera Program, reflecting international recognition of her leadership capacity. Rachel Elizabeth is a consummate soprano and recitalist, having sung extensively in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Rachel Elizabeth’s students are frequent first place winners and finalists in competitions such as the Monserrat Caballé, the Fausto Ricci, Maria Caniglia, Neue Stimmen, Belvedere, the Metropolitan Opera Laffont, the Verdi competition in Busseto, and more. She has worked with leading conductors and has appeared as a guest soloist with many orchestras in halls such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, with distinguished ensembles like the Marinsky Orchestra, the Orchestra Verdi, the Orchestra Now, the Oratorio Society of NY, the National Chorale, and more; some of these works include the Verdi Requiem, Carmina Burana, the U.S. premiere of Raff’s Te Deum, the De Profundis of Lili Boulanger, Mahler’s Symphonies, No. 4 and 8, Beethoven 9th Symphony and Mass in C, Bach, Brahms, Fauré and Mozart Requiems, and numerous Rutter works conducted by the composer himself. Ms. Watkins made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Berg’s Lulu; and her career has given her the opportunity to perform the roles of Norma, Violetta, Lucia di Lammermoor, Donna Anna, Gilda, Marguerite, Fiordiligi, Die Königin die Nacht, Adina, Poppea, Juliette, Musetta, Giulietta, and Cleopatra, and the role of Rosina in Anton Coppola’s epic opera, Sacco and Vanzetti; for which an aria was composed for her.