Emily Michiko Jensen
Soprano
About the Artist
Japanese-American soprano Emily Michiko Jensen returns to Hawai'i Opera Theatre for the world premiere of TEA singing the role of Teruko Mackenzie this 2026/2027 season. She will also return to Florentine Opera as First Lady in their production of Die Zauberflöte.
Emily is an alum of the 2025/2026 Artist in Residence at Opera San José where she made two major role debuts: Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) and the title role of Madama Butterfly. During her Residency, she also performed as a Guest Artist singing the role of Tosca for Opera San Jose's Poolside Puccini series and participated in both workshops of the newly commissioned opera Solaris - singing the role of Rheya.
Prior to arriving to San José, she returned to Opera Company of Middlebury to sing Mimi in La bohème (spring 2025).
Emily concluded the season as a finalist in the 2026 Wagner Society of New York Vocal Competition.
Recent performance highlights include her debut as Musetta in La bohème with the Borderland Arts Foundation, a return to the role of Mimì in La bohème at Opera Company of Middlebury - a role she debuted with Hawai’i Opera Theatre.
NEW WORKS
At home with both traditional and new works, Ms. Jensen has been a part of the workshops of Solaris as Rheya with Opera San José, and The House on Mango Street as Cathy, Queen of Cats at Chautauqua Opera. During previous seasons at Chautauqua Opera, she sang the role of 2nd Soprano in Missy Mazzoli's Song from the Uproar, and covered the role of Soprano 2 in Hydrogen Jukebox.
2027 brings a world premiere of TEA as Teruko Mackenzie at Hawai’i Opera Theatre.
CONCERT/RECITAL
Ms. Jensen has performed in recital with Pensacola Opera during her residency, where she performed Die Wesendonck Lieder at the Opera Center. She has returned as a Guest Artist at Florentine Opera to sing in their summer fundraising events.
COMPETITIONS & AWARDS
Ms. Jensen was most recently a 2026 finalist in the Wagner Society of New York Vocal Competition. In 2025 she was a semi-finalist of the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition. She is a 2023 Career Grant recipient from The Olga Forrai Foundation. In the spring of 2022, she was a semi-finalist for the Annapolis Vocal Competition, Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and Irene Dalís Vocal Competition at Opera San José. During her time at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, she received The Georgina Joshi International Fellowship to support her attendance to the 2020 Summer Opera Tel Aviv program where she was to sing Alice Ford in Falstaff; this was cancelled due to COVID. She was a 2018 finalist for the McCammon Vocal Competition.
RESIDENT/STUDIO ARTIST PROGRAMS
Ms. Jensen has participated in the resident artist programs of Opera San José, Pensacola Opera, Florentine Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera, and the young artist programs of Chautauqua Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Company of Middlebury.
EDUCATION
Originally from San Diego, California, Ms. Jensen received a Graduate Diploma and Master of Music in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. She attended Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a Performance Diploma candidate with an Associate Instructor Scholarship before beginning her work as a professional artist.
Previous roles include Marguerite (Faust), Science (A New Kind of Fallout), Blanche (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Foreign Woman (The Consul), Suzel (L’amico Fritz), Governess (The Turn of the Screw), and Tiny (Paul Bunyan). Other engagements have included selections as Ilia in Idomeneo, Zdenka in Arabella, Alma in Summer and Smoke, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte.
Her studies have brought her to the Académie internationale d’été de Nice (France), Freie Universität (Berlin, Germany), and Centro Studi Italia (Urbania, Italy). She hopes to return to Europe one day to continue to build her repertoire and fuel her interest in languages.
"As for our Butterfly, Emily Michiko Jensen plays the part with exceptional elegance. Vocally, she is equally as assured as her stagemates, with a bel canto in-the-mask technique that produces a spinning quality in her tone.
Her “Un bel di” is magnificent and moving, sprouting like a sudden bloom from a conversation with Suzuki."
- Operaville
