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The American soprano, Caroline (Carrie) Kouma, earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with a minor in Theatre from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska (2008). She did not immediately pursue a performance career and instead turned to arts administration, working as the Office and Box Office Manager for Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra in Lincoln. She then served for the Peace Corps in Azerbaijan from 2010-2012 and worked as a co-teacher with local English teachers in a community school. She went back to grad school and obtained her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Bowling Green State University in Ohio (2017-2019).
A strong competitor, Caroline Kouma was the recipient of the Gary Jones Memorial and Opera Omaha Guild awards at the Nebraska district Metropolitan Opera auditions and was named District Winner in 2014-2015. She was a 2017 graduate winner of the BGSU Concerto Competition and took first place awards at Ohio NATS (2018) and the Marjorie Conrad Art Song competition (2018). She was also named a finalist in the Opera at Florham Vocal Competition in New Jersey (2018), Harold Haugh Light Opera Competition in Michigan (2019), and the Compostela Lírica in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2019).
Caroline Kouma is a versatile artist equally at home on the operatic stage and within the tapestry of an ensemble. She has appeared with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra and Abendmusik as soprano soloist for such words as J.S. Bach's Magnificat in D major BWV 243, Mealor’s Stabat Mater, and Francis Poulenc's Gloria. She has previously sung with the Detroit area chamber choir, Sounding Light, as well as First Plymouth’s Cantorei and the Abendmusik Concert Choir in Nebraska. She most recently appeared with the Internationales Vokalensemble Berlin in Germany in autumn 2019. Possessing a strong interest in new music, Ms. Kouma appeared with ensembles at the Bowling Green and Toledo New Music Festivals, performing works such as Steve Reich’s Tehillim. She is a founding member and vocalist for (N/A) ensemble, with whom she has had the pleasure to premiere numerous avant-garde and experimental works. In addition to her ensemble work, Caroline is a dynamic performer in opera and musical theatre. In 2017, she sang the role of “Nurse” in the world premiere of Strangers from Paradise with Opera Omaha and sang the roles of Fiordiligi in W.A. Mozart's Cosí fan tutte and Semele in George Frideric Handel's Semele to critical acclaim at Bowling Green State University. Favorite musical theatre roles include Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella (BGSU, November 2018) and Heidi in [title of show] (OmniArts Nebraska). Most recently, she has ventured into the world of virtual concerts, performing at the soundSCAPE 2020 online festival and the InsideOut Ceilidh with InsideOut Musician.
She looks forward to the summer season of 2021, when she will sing at the soundSCAPE festival in Cesena, Italy. When she is not singing, Caroline can be found with a good book and cup of coffee or working on her lockdown project - learning to play the ukulele. She currently lives in Duluth, Minnesota. |
