Raeeka Shehabi-Yaghmai, Soprano, Beethoven 9th
Persian soprano Raeeka Shehabi-Yaghmai possesses a unique fusion of versatility, strength and sensitivity in her singing and stage presence. Making her foray into the lyric soprano repertoire, her roles have included Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Nedda (Pagliacci), Norina (Don Pasquale), Violetta (La Traviata), as well as over 20 roles she has sung as a mezzo-soprano.
An interpreter of Persian folksongs and melodies, she founded the Persian Melody Project in 2007 and recently performed the songs with Oakland East Bay Symphony, Redwood Symphony and in orchestral concerts in Southern California, San Francisco and New York City.
She has performed with San Francisco Opera Center, North Bay Opera, West Bay Opera, West Coast Opera, Livermore Opera, Oakland Opera Theatre, Mendocino Music Festival, Festival del Sol, Ensemble Parallèle, Orchestra Nova, the Redwood Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony and Center Stage Opera. This season, in addition to appearing today with Prometheus Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, she appears as Cinderella’s stepmother (Into the Woods) with Center Stage Opera in Southern California, and in solo performance at Lincoln Theater in Napa.
Ms. Shehabi-Yaghmai holds a Bachelor of Music (magna cum laude) from California State University at Northridge and a Masters of Music and a Post Graduate Artist’s Diploma from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. An avid supporter of young artist education, she established the Taneen Opera Summer Opera Workshop in San Francisco in 2005 to train aspiring beginning opera singers.
