Rebecca Regan is a versatile soprano with diverse interests, comfortable with repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary.

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Rebecca is a passionate interpreter of new music who seeks to express wide-ranging voices and stories onstage. In 2022-2023, she had the privilege of collaborating with composers and singers at the Peabody Institute on a series of original opera scenes and one-acts, culminating in the premieres of Take Me Down by Michael Mills and Shadow Stretches Long and White by Victor Cui. Rebecca has also premiered art songs by Cui, Deux Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé. In 2019, she premiered the role of the Narrator in Lili Tobias’ The Yellow Wallpaper, an adaptation of the classic work of Feminist literature. She previously collaborated with Tobias on a performance of the song “Nähe des Geliebten” juxtaposed with settings of the same poem by other female composers—an exploration of text and a celebration of women’s voices in music.

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Rebecca brings this same passion for musical storytelling to the operatic stage. She most recently appeared as Lena in Ana Sokolović's Svadba in 2024 with Peabody Opera Theatre - another thrilling opportunity to explore more contemporary opera. She previously performed the role of Poppea in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea with Miami Music Festival in 2023, Cinna in Mozart’s Lucio Silla with Chicago Summer Opera for their 2021 season, and covered the role of Second Woman for the Swarthmore College Music Department’s 2016 production of Dido and Aeneas. She has performed staged scenes from operas by Mozart, Weber, Donizetti, and Wolf-Ferrari. Rebecca has also branched outside the operatic idiom to sing the role of Freddie in The Audition, a Franz von Suppe operetta reworked with new text by Martha Collins, and Jack’s Mother in a scene from Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

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Rebecca is also a dedicated ensemble singer. She has appeared in concerts of new and early music with Peabody’s NEXT ensemble in their 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons. She previously joined the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus for Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Requiem, and Johan de Meij’s Return to Middle Earth (an opportunity to add Elvish to the languages she’s sung!). From 2015-2019, she performed chamber music with the Swarthmore Garnet Singers and large-scale works with the Swarthmore College Chorus. She has also sung in opera choruses for Don Giovanni (Peabody Opera, 2023) and Dido and Aeneas (Swarthmore College, 2016), and joined Young Victorian Theatre Company for Ruddigore in 2024.

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In addition to her work as a singer, Rebecca is a playwright, crafting speculative and thought-provoking dramatic works. She debuted as a librettist in the 2024 concert premiere of Apple of My Eye at Hunter College, with music by Lili Tobias. Her one-act plays appeared in collaborations with the Swarthmore College Drama Board, and her play A Few Quick Samples was accepted in Road Less Traveled Productions’ local playwright festival in Buffalo, NY.

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Rebecca received her M.M. from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Voice Performance, where she studied in the studio of Tony Arnold, and graduated with the George Castelle Memorial Award in Voice. She holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College in English, Latin, and Linguistics, and draws on her passion for literature and language in her work as a vocalist. At Swarthmore, she was a recipient of the Freeman Scholarship for independent study of music and the winner of the 2019 Concerto Competition for her performance of the aria “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante.”