Emily Gallagher, described as “harmonically appealing and splendiferous” (Stage and Cinema) is a soprano based in Los Angeles, California. She was recently seen as Susanna in Il segreto di Susanna and Lucy in The Telephone with Opera Italia and as Dew Fairy/Sandman in Opera Modesto’s production of Hansel and Gretel.

Upcoming engagements include Opal Burrows in The Mighty Casey with Lyric Opera of Orange County, Chloé in Offenbach’s Daphnis et Chloé and Chester in Jodi Goble’s Meow and Forever with Thousand Bridges Opera, a Liederabend at Palais Khevenhüller-Metsch Gesellschaft für Musiktheater in Vienna, Austria with Donna Suenyan Chan at the piano, and Younger Alice in Michael Ching’s Alice Ryley with the Source Filter Music Collective.

Emily is the creator and star of the one woman opera, Enchanted Melodies: An Interactive Fairytale Opera which she premiered in June of 2024 with City Lyric Opera in New York City. She has gone on to perform the opera with Pacific Opera Project, Opera Modesto, the Stanislaus County Library System, Azure Family Concerts (Pittsburgh), with upcoming performances with the Stissing Center in Pine Plains, New York; Creative Becoming in Philadelphia; the Ronald McDonald House of Greater Philadelphia; Pasadena Unified School District, the Savannah VOICE Festival, and Santa Cruz Opera Project. 

Role highlights include John F. Kennedy in the world premiere of Minute to Midnight with Synchromy (Los Angeles), First Wood Sprite in Pacific Opera Project’s Rusalka, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Pacific Opera Project, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with the Pittsburgh Savoyards, Soprano in Missy Mazzoli’s Songs from the Uproar at the August Wilson Center (Pittsburgh), Maguelone/La Fée in Cendrillon with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Nada in Ana Sokolović’s Svadba at the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica at the KammerOper in Vienna. While a student at Carnegie Mellon University she sang the roles of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Carolina in Il matrimonio segreto. 

As a recitalist, Emily has been seen as a soloist in Marshall Opera’s Opera Oral History Project at Lincoln Center and abroad in Vienna, Austria; Valletta, Malta; and Belgrade, Serbia. 

Emily is an avid supporter of contemporary music, and has originated multiple roles, including John F. Kennedy Dante De Silvia and Alan Olejniczak’s Minute to Midnight with Synchromy (Los Angeles), Mary in The School of Marital Happiness at the Wiener KammerOper, Mother in Starsong, part of the Compōs-it Opera Festival, Diana in Languagemachine with Pittsburgh Opera, part of their Co-Opera series, and Soprano in Caleb Glickman’s My Neighbor Figaro, for which she also wrote the libretto. This opera was also presented on OperaVision in August 2020 as part of a series of mini-operas written, produced, and performed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a 2022-23 Fulbright Scholar to Austria Emily worked with the theater production company TaleSpin—Musical Tales for Big and Small to produce an original children’s concert series and picture book available in four languages.

Emily has directed numerous shows for youth theater including You’re A Good Man, The Wizard of Oz, Charlie Brown, Tuck Everlasting, Annie Kids, Seussical Kids, and Willy Wonka Kids. She also served as Assistant Director for the world premiere of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant with Opera Modesto in January 2024. 

Emily is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Sigma Iota honor societies and is a member of the Pasadena Alumni Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota, the international women's music fraternity. She is also a member of the Young Professionals Board for Hello Neighbor, a refugee resettlement and support organization based in Pittsburgh.

Emily holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon University. Her work has been supported by grants from Sigma Alpha Iota Philanthropies, Drawing Connections (LA) Opera Buffs (LA), Arts Ed Collaborative (Pittsburgh), The Center for Cultural Innovation, California Council for the Arts, and Fulbright Austria.