I am both a professional opera singer and the sole proprietor of The Baking Mezzo!

Admittedly, most of the time when I introduce myself to people and start talking about what I do for a living, I’m afraid it sounds like I’m making it up as it’s such an unusual combination of professions. As an opera singer I have worked with San Diego Opera for the last few years and placed in many local competitions as well. You may even see my face or name on a poster once in a while!

For those who are unfamiliar with the world of opera, the term “Mezzo-Soprano” is a label for a female voice type on the lower side of the spectrum. Many of the roles made for my voice type fall under the categories of “Witches, Bitches, or Britches” meaning we are typically playing older women, prostitutes (or something similar), or young men. Only on occasion do we have the chance to play a romantic lead (I’m not bitter at all) but I digress…

I have been singing for 16 years now, almost as long as I have been baking. I started out with food like many others, my mom taught me to cook and my dad taught me to make what are (in my opinion) the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. I would bake for school events and basically spent my education learning how to follow a recipe book and racking up basic kitchen skills.

In 2019, I graduated from college and was making living my dream, making my income from the five musical jobs I had at the time. I had gotten a big role in a summer program in Italy and it felt like things were really starting to take off, up until the pandemic.

Like so many others in my field, my source of income completely disappeared, almost overnight. I was devastated and for the longest time I had no idea what was going to become of my career. In order to avoid the crushing depression and to keep myself busy, I started baking again.

After a LOT of trial and error, asking for input from roommates, and learning from watching others, I started seeing and tasting results I was really proud of!

The business side of things didn’t start until a good friend of mine had seen my baked goods and offered to pay me to make her birthday cake. Honestly, it had never crossed my mind to charge money for what I did but a single friend having faith in me was the first building block in the business I have worked hard for during the last few years.

I am increasingly proud of what I do and the quality I put out. I aim to have balance and beauty in every bite and to have nothing be so overwhelming that you don’t want to go back for more.

Today I am lucky enough to have both music and baking be a prevalent part of my life and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to to both. If you are curious, the link to my musical website is below, go check it out!