Hailed by the New York Times as a “vocally luminous young soprano,” Jessica Rivera quickly is establishing herself as one of the most creatively inspired vocal artists before the public today. The intelligence, dimension, and spirituality that she infuses in her performances on the international concert and opera stages has garnered Ms. Rivera unique artistic collaborations with many of today’s most celebrated composers including John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, and Nico Muhly, and has brought her together in collaboration with such esteemed conductors as Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Ms. Rivera was heralded in the world premiere of John Adams’s newest opera, A Flowering Tree, singing the role of Kumudha, in a production directed by Peter Sellars, as part of the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna. Since then, she has performed A Flowering Tree for her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle and, under the composer’s baton, with the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center, and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre. The London performances were recorded and are now commercially available on the Nonesuch Records label.

Performances of the 2009-10 season include Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (in Atlanta and at Carnegie Hall); Bach’s Mass in b minor under with Helmuth Rilling and the orchestra and chorus of the University of Southern California; a program of Copland and Golijov with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Sir Roger Norrington and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall and with Mr. Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Adams’s A Flowering Tree with Joana Carneiro and the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Chorus at the Cité de la Musique in Paris; and both Salonen’s Five Images of Sappho and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Ms. Carneiro and the Berkeley Symphony. Ms. Rivera also returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for performances of Golijov’s celebrated La Pasión según San Marcos with Maria Guinand and joins the San Diego Symphony and Jahja Ling for Mozart’s Requiem.

Ms. Rivera made her European operatic debut as Kitty Oppenheimer in Peter Sellars’s acclaimed production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic with the Netherlands Opera, a role that also served for her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and she joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in a past season for its new production of Doctor Atomic under the direction of Alan Gilbert. She gave concert performances of Doctor Atomic with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and her portrayal of Kitty Oppenheimer was captured in Amsterdam and is commercially available, on DVD, on the BBC/Opus Arte label.

Highlights of recent seasons include performances of El Niño with David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Nixon Tapes with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the direction of John Adams; Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Phoenix Symphony and Michael Christie; Carmen, as Micaëla, with Bramwell Tovey and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Poulenc’s Gloria with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Mr. Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The artist made her critically acclaimed Santa Fe Opera debut in the summer of 2005 as Nuria in the world premiere of the revised edition of Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar. She reprised the role for the 2007 Grammy Award-winning Deutsche Grammophon recording of the work with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano, and bowed in the Peter Sellars staging at Lincoln Center, Opera Boston, as well as in performances at the Barbican Centre, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Cincinnati Opera, and the Ojai and Ravinia Festivals. The artist’s first performances of Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar, a role created by Dawn Upshaw, occurred in the summer of 2007 at the Colorado Music Festival under the baton of Michael Christie.

Committed to the art of recital, performances have brought her to New York, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe. In the past season, to support the release of a recital disc on the Urtext Records label that examines works for soprano, clarinet, and piano, Ms. Rivera toured North America with concerts in Los Angeles, New York (Carnegie Hall), Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, and Chicago (Ravinia Festival). She was deeply honored to have received a commission from Carnegie Hall for the world premiere of a song cycle by Nico Muhly called The Adulteress given on the occasion of her Weill Hall recital performance.

Ms. Rivera has sung Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Musetta in La Bohème with the Los Angeles Opera. As a member of the prestigious Los Angeles Opera Resident Artist Program for three seasons, she received critical acclaim from the New York Times for creating the role of Anastasia in the world premiere of Nicholas and Alexandra. She also sang Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, as well as roles in Peter Grimes, The Queen of Spades, Lohengrin, La Traviata, The Merry Widow, Die Zauberflöte, Gianni Schicchi, Don Giovanni, and Nabucco.