About Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is committed to redefining what it means to experience great opera. The company is driven to deliver consistently excellent artistry through innovative, relevant, celebratory programming that engages and energizes new and traditional audiences.
Under the leadership of General Director, President & CEO Anthony Freud, Music Director Enrique Mazzola, and Special Projects Advisor Renée Fleming, Lyric is dedicated to reflecting, and drawing strength from, the diversity of Chicago. Lyric offers, through innovation, collaboration, and evolving learning opportunities, ever-more exciting, accessible, and thought-provoking audience and community experiences. We also stand committed to training the artists of the future, through The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center; and to becoming increasingly diverse across our audiences, staff, programming, and artists—magnifying the welcoming pull of our art form, our company, and our city.
Through the timeless power of voice, the splendor of a great orchestra and chorus, theater, dance, design, and truly magnificent stagecraft, Lyric is devoted to immersing audiences in worlds both familiar and unexpected, creating shared experiences that resonate long after the curtain comes down.
About Christine Goerke
Soprano Christine Goerke is the recipient of the Richard Tucker Award, the Musical America Vocalist of the Year Award, and the Opera News Award. In the 2025–26 season, Goerke will return to Bayerische Staatsoper for the title role in Elektra and to Los Angeles Philharmonic for a fully staged production of Die Walküre as Brünnhilde, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. On the concert stage, she returns to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for Britten’s War Requiem, Oregon Symphony for a Wagner concert highlighting the Liebestodt and Immolation scenes, Boston Lyric Opera for their annual gala, and Wichita Symphony for Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.
She has appeared at many of the world’s leading opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bayerische Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera, New York City Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra national de Paris, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre du Capitole, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Real, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, and the Saito Kinen Festival.
Goerke began her career singing the works of Mozart and Handel, and has since earned international acclaim for her portrayals of the powerful dramatic heroines of Strauss and Wagner. Notable performances include the title roles in Elektra, Turandot, and Ariadne auf Naxos; Der Ring des Nibelungen (Brünnhilde); Parsifal (Kundry); Lohengrin (Ortrud); Fidelio (Leonora); Don Carlos (Eboli); Die Frau ohne Schatten (Die Färberin); Wozzeck (Marie); Les Troyens (Cassandre); Peter Grimes (Ellen Orford); The Rape of Lucretia (Female Chorus); Falstaff (Alice); and Dialogues des Carmélites (Madame Lidoine).
She has appeared with many of the world’s foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Radio Vara at the Concertgebouw, Sydney Symphony, New World Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. She has collaborated with many of today’s leading conductors, including James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Claus Peter Flor, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the late Robert Shaw, Patrick Summers, Jeffrey Tate, Christian Thielemann, Michael Tilson Thomas, Alan Gilbert, and Edo de Waart.
Her discography includes the Grammy Award–winning recording of Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance), and the Grammy Award–nominated Stabat Mater by Dvořák. Her long collaboration with Robert Shaw also yielded acclaimed recordings of Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes, Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. Other notable recordings include Iphigénie en Tauride (title role, Telarc) and Britten’s War Requiem, which won the Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
About Adia Evans
A second-year soprano with The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago from Baltimore, Evans sang Theresa Alvarez in The Listeners, Girlfriend 2 in Blue, and Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto in Lyric’s 2024–25 Season.
After participating in the 2025 Britten Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburgh, England, she presented a recital for the Dame Myra Hess Series in August and then appears at Lyric in El último sueño de Frida y Diego. Recent debuts include The Cliburn in Recital with Jake Heggie, the Dayton Philharmonic (Handel’s Messiah), Annapolis Opera (First Lady in The Magic Flute), Borderland Arts Foundation (Mimì in La Bohème), and the National Orchestra Institute (Beethoven’s 9th with Marin Alsop). Evans has performed with Santa Fe Opera, Merola Opera Program, Fort Worth Opera, Dallas Opera Guild, Opera Columbus, Tulsa Opera, and Knoxville Opera, among others.
Her numerous honors include the 2025 Lola Fletcher Award from the American Opera Society of Chicago, a 2024 Richard F. Gold Career Grant, an Encouragement Award from the 2024 London Foundation Competition, third place in the 2023 and 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Midwest Region, and first place in the 2023 Dallas Opera Guild Lonestar Vocal Competition.
About Travon D. Walker
This season, the third-year tenor with The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center will appear at Lyric in Salome. His previous appearances include Borsa in Rigoletto, 1st Prisoner in Fidelio, Son in Blue, and Parpignol in La Bohème. In the 2024–25 season, Walker also made company debuts with Opera Philadelphia in The Anonymous Lover and the North Carolina Symphony, followed by a return to Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist (Dialogues of the Carmelites and Carmen).
Walker received his master’s degree from Rice University, where he sang Sam Kaplan in Street Scene. A native of Hinesville, Georgia, he completed his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music.
The tenor was invited to participate in Renée Fleming’s 2023 SongStudio and Joyce DiDonato’s 2024 Masterclass Series, both at Carnegie Hall, as well as the 2023 Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. Other engagements include the Sinfónica de Minería (Mexico City), Erie Philharmonic, and Houston Grand Opera. Walker received an Encouragement Award from the Kansas City District in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the 2024 Best Vocal Artist Award from the American Opera Society, and the 2024 Luminarts Cultural Foundation Men’s Voice Fellowship.
