Soprano Siena Forest moved to the Twin Cities from Massachusetts to join Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist Program from 2014-2016. Since then, Siena has taken the music scene by snowstorm performing with Minnesota Opera, Loft Recital, Theater Latté Da, Lyric Opera of the North, Out of the Box Opera, Hill House Chamber Players, Mill City Summer Opera, Skylark Opera, Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, Twin Cities Opera Guild, Really Spicy Opera, St. Cloud Symphony, and Lakes Area Music Festival.
Siena’s honors include 1st Place for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions’ Arkansas District, plus recognition by multiple organizations including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Minnesota District, Piccola Opera, the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition, top 10 scene-stealing performances in the Twin Cities Arts Reader, Central City Opera (Patsy Rose Musser Award), and Indiana University (1st Place in the Wilfred C. Bain Opera Scholarship Competition, Schilling-Tourner Friends of Music Scholarship, Artistic Excellence Award and Music Faculty Award). She holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Indiana University where she studied with Carol Vaness. She currently studies with George Smith.
Off the stage, Siena is a board member for Out of the Box Opera, and is currently launching a non-profit called OOPS MN: Opera-Oriented Project Sponsorships in Minnesota. The mission of thiz organization is to connect Minnesotan artists with patrons to fund artist-led project proposals featuring singing. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, reading, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, cooking, baking bread, laughing with her husband, and cuddling their two cats. www.sienaforest.com