To celebrate and spotlight some of the field’s top artists and emerging singers, OPERA America recently asked member companies to nominate the singers and production artists who have caught their ears and eyes.

When Long Island native Caitlin Gotimer matriculated at Binghamton University as a pre-med student, she had no musical ambitions. She auditioned for the school musical her first semester as a way to make friends, belting out “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. And then, everything changed.

“I had never taken a voice lesson, and I had no idea I was singing in an operatic manner — I was just copying a recording,” Gotimer says. “But the music department was like, ‘Who are you?’ They told me, ‘If this is what you want to do, we think you could have a career.’” She began taking lessons and became involved with Tri-Cities Opera, working backstage and singing in the chorus.

Gotimer’s teachers first pegged her as a mezzo-soprano, but she later found her actual fach as a “lyrico-spinto,” or a soprano with both brightness and weight in her voice. “They say that good singing is not that far off from speaking, so the fact that we speak this way in Long Island really lends itself to good singing,” she says.

After Binghamton, Gotimer earned her master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, then subsequently joined Arizona Opera’s Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio. “Paired with her keen dramatic instincts and exceptional collegiality, Caitlin has become a cherished member of the Arizona Opera family and a bright rising star on the operatic stage,” says Samuel Carroll, director of artistic operations at Arizona Opera.

Gotimer currently works on both sides of the Atlantic in roles like Donna Anna, Micaëla, Suor Angelica, and Musetta. One role that lies particularly close to her heart is Tosca. She first sang it at Arizona Opera in 2023, and it will now serve as the vehicle for her Glyndebourne debut: the august festival’s first-ever production of the Puccini perennial. “My voice has the right instincts for Puccini,” she says. “But Tosca in particular: I’m so much like her! She’s passionate, feisty, extremely loyal — and a singer.”

Caitlin Gotimer is one of four In the Wings profiles featured in our spring 2025 magazine. You can read all the profiles here.

In the Wings is underwritten by generous support from Laurie E. Nelson Randlett, trustee of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera.