Hailed as a “true artist” (Opera News), Soprano Raquel González from Lawrence, Kansas recently completed three seasons as a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist at Washington National Opera, where she appeared as Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), Contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Micaëla (Carmen), and Mimì (La bohème). She is a 2019 Sphinx Organization Medal of Excellence Awardee.

In the 2018-19 season, Ms. González makes her role and house debuts as Liù in Turandot at New Orleans Opera before returning to WNO for another role debut as Anna Sørensen in Silent Night. The new year brings several house debuts, first at North Carolina as Micaëla, then Atlanta Opera to reprise Tatyana (Eugene Onegin). She then sings Violetta (La traviata) at Opera on the James before returning to Mimì at Opera Tampa. She makes another house debut at Central City Opera as Cio-Cio San.

In the 2017-18 season, Ms. González made her hometown debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Tatyana in a new production of Eugene Onegin, then performed with the National Symphony Orchestra in Bernstein’s Songfest Orchestra before appearing in Washington National Opera’s The Little Prince. She sang her first Verdi’s Requiems with the West Virginia Symphony and Syracuse Symphoria. She returned to Syracuse Opera as Violetta and sang her first Iolanta at Queen City Opera in Cincinnati. She also sang Micaëla with the Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center.

Ms. González first sang at The Glimmerglass Festival as First Lady in The Magic Flute then returned as a guest artist in 2016 as a Mimì which was acclaimed as “remarkable”. While a young artist at WNO she also sang The Sandman in Hansel and Gretel and covered Blanche de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites. She made her role debut as Desdemona (Otello) with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2015.

As a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, she appeared in the world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion and returned to OTSL in the summer of 2014 as a Festival Artist to sing First Lady and cover Blanche de la Force.

At The Juilliard School Ms. González was seen as Tatyana, Arminda (La finta giardiniera), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), and Mélisse (Armide). She spent several summers at the Chautauqua Institution singing such roles as Magda (La Rondine), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi).

In concert, she has appeared with the New York Festival of Song at Alice Tully Hall, where she also performed several times with William Christie and Juilliard415. Ms. González was the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and made her debut with the New York Philharmonic as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall. A 2016 Sullivan Foundation Career Grant Winner and Mid-Atlantic Region Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she has also been awarded prizes from the Liederkranz Foundation and the Gerda Lissner Foundation. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she was a Toulmin Foundation Scholar.