Soprano Raven McMillon is a native of Baltimore, MD. Recently, Ms. McMillon was named a 2021 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. She returns to Houston Grand Opera as a second year studio artist for their 2021-2022 season as Frasquita in Carmen, Peter in Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day, and Papagena in The Magic Flute. Elsewhere, she makes her house and role debut at Des Moines Metro Opera as Pamina in The Magic Flute as well as a house and role debut at Opera Philadelphia as Gilda in Rigoletto.

Ms. McMillon will join Cincinnati Opera in the summer of 2022 for her role debut as Musetta in La Bohème as well as Ruthie in Castor and Patience, a much anticipated world premiere from composer Gregory Spears.

In the summer of 2021, Ms. McMillon joined Cincinnati Opera as Frasquita in the company’s outdoor presentation of Carmen. She was also seen in her role debut as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Opera Steamboat. During the 2020-2021 season, she made her house debut at Houston Grand Opera in scenes from Carmen (Frasquita) and L’elisir d’amore (Adina) in the Studio Showcase. She was also seen in the HGO Digital season as Rona Richards in The Impresario, Peter in The Making of The Snowy Day documentary, and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. Ms.McMillon also performed as a soloist in the Giving Voice concert as well as the HGO Studio Recitals.

In 2020, Ms. McMillon also collaborated with Lyric Opera of the North as Trish in the company’s chapter in The Decameron Coalition’s “Tales from a Safe Distance.”

Other opera credits include La Princesse in L’enfant et les sortilèges (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra); Adele in Die Fledermaus (Carnegie Mellon); Goldie in Goldie B.

Locks and the Three Singing Bears (Pittsburgh Festival Opera); and Linfea in La Calisto (CCM). Ms. McMillion has also workshopped new roles such as Mary in Faye Chiao’s The Secret Codes of Mary Bowser and Lucy in Tobias Picker’s Awakenings.

Ms. McMillon received her MM Vocal Performance at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music and her BFA in Vocal Performance at Carnegie Mellon University.