Praised for her “big, beautifully projected voice with an attractive edge and sparkle” (Arts Knoxville) soprano Adia Evans is quickly establishing herself as an up-and-coming talent in the opera and concert world. Evans spent the summer as an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera, where she covered the titular Tosca and the Foreign Princess in Rusalka. This spring, she will join the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center as an Ensemble Artist. So far this season she made her debut at The Cliburn in a recital with Jake Heggie, her debut with Dayton Philharmonic as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and her debut at Annapolis Opera as the First Lady in The Magic Flute. Later this season, she will perform with Borderland Arts Foundation as Mimì in La Bohème and with the National Orchestral Institute as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony under the baton of Marin Alsop. 

A frequent recitalist and concert soloist, Evans has recently performed her first Handel’s Messiah and covered the solos of Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem with Fort Worth Opera. This winter, she will also perform at an alumni recital featuring black composers at the University of Maryland College Park. In past seasons, Evans was featured on the PBS Special “Knox Opera for All!” with Knoxville Opera and was a guest soloist in Tulsa Opera’s MLK Day Parade, performing a short recital of repertoire by Black composers. Evans has performed the soprano solos in Haydn’s Kleine Orgelmesse, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Fauré’s Requiem.

Evans is an avid competitor. To start 2023, Evans won the Tulsa District and Third Place in the Midwest Region of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and 1st Place in the Dallas Opera Guild Lone Star Vocal Competition. She also received the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant Award awarded by the Shoshana Foundation and a Career Grant in the Pasadena Vocal Competition. In 2022, Evans was awarded a William M. Sullivan Foundation Award, an Encouragement Award from the Tennessee District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Second Place in the Lewisville Lake Vocal Competition, and First Place and Audience Choice in the James Toland Vocal Competition. In previous seasons, she won both Fourth Place and Audience Choice in the 2021 Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing Vocal Competition, and both Second Place and the Audience Choice Award in the 2020 Harlem Opera Theater Vocal Competition. Evans was also a finalist in the 2022 Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition.

Evans holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Music degree from the University of Tennessee Knoxville as part of the Knoxville Opera Studio. She is also a proud alumna of the Baltimore School for the Arts.