Rachel Calloway

Mezzo-Soprano Rachel Calloway brings versatility and compelling insight to stages worldwide. Praised as “a gale-force” (Time Out New York) with a “dark-hued and sizable voice” (New York Times), she is especially recognized as an interpreter of new and contemporary music. Recent premieres include music by Augusta Read Thomas, John Zorn, Orlando Jacinto Garcia, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, David Garner, Gabriela Lena Frank, Christopher Cerrone, and Annika Socolofsky. With her husband, violinist Ari Streisfeld, Ms. Calloway performs as Duo Cortona, creating new works for mezzo-soprano and violin.

Highlights of the 2024 – 2025 season included “Cherubino” in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Greenville Symphony; performances with the cutting-edge vocal ensemble Ekmeles in Cologne, Stuttgart, and Freiburg, Germany; the USC-Castleton Immersion at The Castleton Festival; the world premiere of Rachel m’vaca by Meira Warshauer and mezzo-soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the USC Symphony. Duo Cortona was featured in performance and educational residencies at Clemson University, Penn State University, Duke University and Florida State University.

Ms. Calloway is recognized as a leading interpreter of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which she has performed with Ensemble Signal at the Library of Congress, with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, with the Cortona Collective at the Akousticum in Ede (The Netherlands), and at Alice Tully Hall (NY). She has appeared as the alto soloist in major works of Gustav Mahler with The Orlando Philharmonic, The California Symphony, and The Omaha Symphony. Ms. Calloway has appeared in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Series, the New York Philharmonic, Berkeley Symphony, Ojai Festival, San Francisco Girls’ Chorus, BAM Next Wave Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Cal Performances, and Lincoln Center Festival.  She is a frequent collaborator with today’s leading ensembles including the Amernet Quartet, JACK Quartet, and Third Coast Percussion. Ms. Calloway has appeared at the Kennedy Center under the auspices of Pro Musica Hebraica.  Alongside her brother, cellist Jason Calloway, she is a founding member of Shir Ami: Song of our People, an ensemble dedicated to the preservation and performances of lost and unknown Jewish art music. 

Ms. Calloway made her European operatic debut as Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw at Opéra de Reims, Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jovet (Paris), and Opéra de Lille. She has also appeared on the operatic stage with Opera Philadelphia, Glimmerglass Opera, Tulsa Opera, Central City Opera, and Gotham Chamber Opera.

A passionate and devoted educator, Ms. Calloway serves on the faculty of the University of South Carolina as Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Spark: Music Leadership at Carolina. She joined the faculty of the Cortona Sessions for New Music (Italy & The Netherlands) in 2014, Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard in 2016, and the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory in 2023. Ms. Calloway holds degrees from The Juilliard School (BM) and Manhattan School of Music (MM).