The Nigerian-American soprano Francesca Chiejina, who studied at the University of Michigan with Martha Sheil and James Paterson, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Susan McCulloch, is a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for which her roles included Countess Ceprano (Rigoletto), Lady-in-Waiting (Macbeth), Voice from Heaven (Don Carlos), Ines (Il trovatore), Micaëla (La Tragédie de Carmen), Melanto / Amore (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), and the soprano solos in Górecki’s Third Symphony in the world première of a new work by Crystal Pite for The Royal Ballet. Highlights among her operatic appearances include the roles of Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) at Scottish Opera, High Priestess (Aida) at The Royal Opera, Mimì (La bohème) for both English Touring Opera and Nevill Holt Opera, Melissa (Amadigi di Gaula) with English Touring Opera, JoAnn (New Year) and Freia (Rhinegold) at Birmingham Opera Company, Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) at Blackheath Halls Opera, Clara (Porgy and Bess) in a house and role début at Grange Park Opera, Serena (Porgy and Bess) in her début with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and Aldimira (Sigismondo) in her début with Capella Cracoviensis. On the concert platform, Francesca Chiejina has sung the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Odyssey with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Berg’s Seven Early Songs and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the BBC Philharmonic and at the Sage Gateshead with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Mozart’s Requiem with Crouch End Festival Chorus, Handel’s Messiah with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, and Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music at the Last Night of the BBC Proms.