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

When mezzo-soprano Camila Montefusco launched her musical career, it was as a 19-year-old violinist in the Orquestra Experimental de Repertório in her native Brazil, a pre-professional organization that paid a small salary. This was a special experience for Montefusco — her father was a talented pianist who, due to his family’s humble background, had been unable to pursue music professionally.

Nevertheless, Montefusco quickly realized that life as an instrumentalist was not enough for her: “The encounter that really changed things for me was playing in the pit for the opera The Pearl Fishers,” she says. “I still remember it so clearly. When the singers joined us in rehearsal, it was mind-blowing.”

While finishing her studies at the University of São Paulo, Montefusco enrolled in a choir and singing classes, found her niche, and decided to become an opera singer. It’s a decision that has since paid off: “She is a dedicated, hardworking singer with a fantastic voice,” says Brenna Corner, Pacific Opera Victoria’s artistic director. “She is fiercely committed to being a clear storyteller onstage. She is someone I look forward to working with again in the future.”

Montefusco moved to Canada when she was 21 to study at Western University in London, Ontario, where she made her stage debut as Katisha in The Mikado, before going on to the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Montefusco is currently a member of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, and she is continuing to audition in the U.S., where she hopes she will soon make her debut.

Michaela Chiste, the emerging artist program coordinator at Opera on the Avalon, describes her as a “spectacular example of an emerging singer with a unique voice and artistic perspective” and “a dedicated worker who is up to any challenge and a delight to work with.”

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