Visit the events page for all upcoming event information, livestream, and ticket links.
Currently, Wresh is a Teaching Artist at Florida Grand Opera and an Adjunct Professor of Voice in Musical Theater at Florida Atlantic University. This April she will appear with Lauderhill Performing Arts in Roger and Hammerstein's South Pacific and this summer she will be a Resident Young Artist with Ohio Light Opera as Fiona in Brigadoon, Patience (cover) in Patience, and more. In 2024, she sang as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Coconut Grove Music Series and made her professional operatic debut with Opera Arlington as La Fée in Viardot’s Cendrillon.
During the 2023-2024 season, Rachel was acclaimed by South Florida Classical Review as the “perfect…youthful, dreamy Rose” in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene with Frost Opera Theater and the Frost Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, she received an Emerging Talent Award from the Kurt Weill Foundation in the 2024 Lotte Lenya Competition. She made her debut as Adele in Die Fledermaus with Music on Site in Wichita, Kansas, and Clara in The Light in the Piazza with Red River Lyric Opera in Wichita Falls, Texas. Furthermore, as a featured soloist, she was invited back to her alma mater high school in Melissa, Texas, to perform in concert accompanied by Melissa High School's top wind ensemble. As a choral singer, she performed in the world-premiere of Frank La Rocca’s Mass for the Forgotten which was televised on EWTN network.
In the 2022-2023 season, as part of an outreach program in affiliation with Frost Opera Theater, Wresh made her Florida Grand Opera debut as Sally in Joe Illick’s Stone Soup. With Frost Opera Theater, she appeared in scenes as Rosina from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Clizia in Handel’s Teseo, and was stage manager for the 2023 main stage production of Le Nozze di Figaro. As a member of the esteemed Frost Chorale, Wresh sang in concert with the British vocal ensemble VOCES8 and at Cincinnati Music Hall with the Cincinnati Symphony in Justin Morell’s All Without Words.
Wresh’s other full roles include Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro (Red River Lyric Opera), Laeticia in The Old Maid and The Thief (Texas Woman’s University), and Cinderella in Into the Woods (Melissa Onstage). She has also appeared in scenes as Gretel from Hansel and Gretel, Blonde from Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Susanna from Le Nozze di Figaro.
Wresh received a B.A. in Vocal Performance from Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in Denton, Texas. There she studied under soprano Jennifer Youngs and bass Jeffrey Tarr. At Texas Woman’s University, she served as the vocal representative on the TWU Department of Music Advisory Committee and was the focus of a university documentary about life in the TWU Music Department during COVID-19. Furthermore, Wresh was president of the Concert Choir, the university’s top choral ensemble under the direction of Dr. Joni Jensen. With the Concert Choir, she participated in a European tour in collaboration with BYU’s Men’s Chorus and the Iowa State Singers, where she was selected by Ēriks Ešenvalds as the soprano soloist for his world premiere of a new choral set entitled Naming of the Rain. While at TWU, she was awarded First Prize at the Annual TWU Honors Recital, was a semifinalist in the DFW NATS Spring competition, and won Second Prize in the International Great Composers Competition for Best Schubert Performance.
In high school, Wresh was highly involved in the fine arts department as Choir Vice President, Musical Theater Dance Captain (as well as the lead actress in several productions), Color Guard Captain, and second chair alto saxophonist. Through Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), Wresh was the first four year All-State Musician from Melissa ISD having placed First Chair Soprano-One in the Small School All-State Mixed Choir for four consecutive years. She was also a four time Division One recipient for her solo performances at the UIL State Solo and Ensemble competitions. Additionally, in 2019, she received the distinction of Outstanding Soloist for her performance of “un moto di gioia” by W.A. Mozart. While in her final year at Melissa high school, Rachel was a TMEA Music Scholar, Dallas Summer Musicals Scholarship Recipient, and was recognized by the Melissa ISD Booster Club as the 2019 Fine Arts Scholarship recipient.
Rachel was born and raised in the small town of Melissa, Texas an hour North of Dallas. Despite her families extensive STEM background, Wresh’s musical inclination was innate and supported by her family from a young age. Her early music education consisted of cantoring in her children’s church choir and musicals put on by her elementary school. She performed in her first musical in the fourth grade and performed in over 30 productions by the time she entered high school. To this day, Rachel is passionate about embracing her musical theater background by taking on both musical theater and operatic roles. In the seventh grade, recognizing the need for a choir program in the school district, Wresh and a group of four other students spoke and sang at an ISD School Board Meeting requesting a choir program. The program was initiated the following year and Wresh was not only a charter member but also served as President of the choir. Wresh was a member of her church choir at St. Gabriel the Archangel in McKinney, Texas, under the direction of former UNT Opera Professor, David Cloutier. The summer before she began high school she started voice lessons with soprano Angela Gray Hawkins which initiated her passion for opera.
