Originally from Clinton, New York, the Chinese American mezzo-soprano is a second-year Houston Grand Opera Studio artist and first-prize winner in HGO’s 2020 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. For HGO’s 2021/2022 season she will portray Mercédès/Carmen, Sister Mathilde/Dialogues of the Carmelites, Second Lady/The Magic Flute, and Stephano/Romeo and Juliet. Last season with HGO, she appeared as Liesl/“My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music” and as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel (HGO Digital). Pierce, who completed the graduate vocal arts program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music. As a winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition, Pierce was set to perform on an international recital tour with pianist Chien-Lin Lu featuring the premiere of a new song cycle by two-time Grammy Award–winning composer Jennifer Higdon, which was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the fall of 2019, Pierce joined the Broad Street Orchestra as Dorinda/Handel’s Acis and Galatea. A winner of the 2019 Marilyn Horne Song Competition, she returned to the Music Academy of the West as a Vocal Fellow in 2021.
