Photo credit: Taso Papadakis for Grand Vision Foundation
Sometimes the tiniest people have the loudest mouths. Trained in classical voice at New England Conservatory of Music, Miki worked steadily in musical theater roles that required her clear lyric soprano and signature comedic sparkle.
But a move to the West Coast brought an unexpected opportunity to audition for the Los Angeles Opera, where Miki made her mainstage debut as Marcellina in FIGARO 90210.
LA Opera's Education and Community Engagement department's various outreach initiatives called upon Miki's unique skill set: her powerful classical sound, strong communicative instincts, the ability to think quickly in challenging performance venues, and a passion to nurture the future audiences of opera.
Miki's most memorable LA Opera moments include:
photo credit: Jill Burnham
Originating the title role of THE WHITE BIRD OF POSTON, an opera set during the Japanese American Internment. Miki worked closely with the composer/director, musical director, and the librettist to create a unique White Bird that incorporated Miki's classical ballet, voice, and professional actor training.
Originating the role of Princess Turandot in THE LEGEND OF CANNERY ROW, an English re-imagining of the Puccini classic, designed to integrate elementary school children into their first experience performing in an opera.
The role of a renegade coyote always scrounging for food scraps in
THE PROSPECTOR, an English version of Puccini's Fanciulla del West.
Miki also served as a Teaching Artist for various outreach programs including Voices for Tolerance (teaching elementary schoolchildren)
...and Choralmania at Hollenbeck Palms (teaching the elderly).
Photo credit: Ben Gibbs
Miki in her mainstage LA Opera Off Grand debut as Marcellina in an English update of Le Nozze di Figaro.
