Mezzo Soprano Jane Monari ’07 graduated from The Juilliard School with her Bachelor’s of Music in Vocal Performance with scholastic distinction in 2011. During her time at Juilliard, Jane was a Morse Fellow and served as a Teaching Assistant for Music Theory and Italian Vocal Literature. Upon graduating from Juilliard, Jane went back to school and graduated from the Master of Arts programme at the Royal Academy of Music, where she received Distinction and a DipRAM. She is also a graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Jane has been performing as an opera singer for over a decade, performing hundreds of times in concerts and operas. As a soloist in concerts, she performed in the premiere of The Hours by Diana Burrell in  2011, and the world premiere of Elgar Howarth's Venice- A Portrait, a piece commissioned by the academy to open their  400+ series in 2012). Her operatic roles include: Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica (Scottish Opera), Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin (Opera Holland Park Young Artist), Suzuki in Madam Butterfly (Opera Up Close), Carmen in Carmen (Opera at the King's Head). 

Reflecting on what she loves most about her work, the 2012 Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Prize winner states, “It takes a lot of people to put on an opera (musicians, tech, props, lighting, costume, wigs, makeup, management, admin etc). It takes hundreds of people with different skill sets from many departments to just put on one show. I love being a small cog in a big machine and getting to work with so many different people.” Last fall, Jane was recently featured on Al-Jazeera’s “The Stream” as a part of a discussion on anti-Asian racism in opera. Her letter, titled “Time’s up for Yellowface,” was also featured in Opera Magazine. 

While at Friends, Jane was an International Baccalaureate student who participated in Choir, Musicals, and the Music Composition Club. Her advice to current WFS students? “Do what makes sense for you.”

Great work, Jane!