Soloist Biographies

Rabibah Dunn

San Francisco Classical Voice described her voice as “a glowing instrument” after soprano Rabihah Davis Dunn’s performance of Leïla in Bizet’s Pearl Fishers with Pocket Opera in San Francisco. Past opera roles include Donna Anna, the title role in Lucia di Lamermoor with Pocket Opera, Vitellia (cover) with Chicago Opera Theater, to name a few. Oratorio appearances include Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare in San Francisco, soprano soloist in Ein Deutsches Requiem in Los Angeles, Vivaldi Magnificat and Verdi Requiem. Rabihah’s international Oratorio engagements include Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Stabat Mater with the London Pro Arte Orchestra, as well as Mozart’s Requiem and Credo Mass. She has received numerous awards and honors including: Grand Prize for The Bel Canto Foundation, Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Second Place in the National Association of Negro Musicians Vocal Competition, and a finalist for the London Handel Singing Competition. Rabihah has worked with many conductors across the world, including Jane Glover, Sir Colin Davis, Steuart Bedford and John DeMain. She holds degrees from the University of Southern California, University of Michigan and the Royal Academy of Music in London. She is also an alum of both Chicago Opera Theater and Chautauqua Opera Young Artists Programs. Rabihah currently sings with the EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble, an ensemble for Black and LatinX singers with the Sphinx Organization in Michigan. EXIGENCE made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2018 and Kennedy Center debut in 2023.

 Shauna Fallihee

Mezzo-Soprano Shauna Fallihee has the pleasure of serving Bay Area singers and audiences as a soloist, ensemble singer, and educator.  Shauna has been featured with numerous Bay Area ensembles including San Francisco Choral Society, Masterworks Chorale, San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, Open Opera, West Bay Opera and the Old St. Mary’s Cathedral Noontime Concert Series.  As an ensemble singer, Shauna has performed with American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, Cantata Collective, AVE (Artist’s Vocal Ensemble), San Francisco Renaissance Voices, and joins the professional roster of San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 2023.  Deeply dedicated to the performance of new music, Shauna has performed world premieres and contemporary works with Empyrean Ensemble,  Facing West Shadow Theater,  NothingSet Ensemble, San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, Opus Project, Wild Rumpus, Ensemble Mik Nawooj, Stanford Laptop Orchestra and enjoyed a decade with new music chamber choir Volti. Upcoming premieres include Nancy Bachmann’s solo opera ‘A Remarkably Capable Woman’ for the Nevada City Composers Collective and excerpts from John Beeman’s new opera ‘Ishi’ with San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra.  Shauna serves on the voice faculties of Holy Names University and Las Positas College and is a lead teacher for The Dailey Method, an alignment-focused exercise program.  She maintains a large voice studio and her unique multi-disciplinary program Embodied Singer integrates movement, myofascial release and meditation with vocal technique. 

Fernando Ruiz

Fernando is a recent San Francisco transplant to the Bay Area and is currently singing in the San Francisco Opera chorus. In 2022, along with the SFO, he sang in Handel’s Messiah in the Baroque Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus. That same year saw Fernando sing the roles of Adam in the musical The Apple Tree and the King of the East/Moon in Jonathan Dove’s The Enchanted Pig while at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Fernando completed his Master of Music degree from Cal State Northridge in voice performance in Fall 2019 where he performed roles in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Der Shauspildirektor, and Serse. He sang as an apprentice with Verdi Chorus in Los Angeles. Fernando began his path towards singing by completing a Bachelor of Music in voice from Grand Canyon University. During his time there he performed the role of Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and sang the tenor solo in Handel’s Messiah.

Igor Vieira

Hailed by Opera News as “superb,” and “show-stealing,” baritone Igor Vieira made his professional debut at age seventeen singing the role of Dancaïre in Carmen. Subsequent performances included the title roles in Don Giovanni, Rigoletto and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as Tonio in I Pagliacci, Germont in La Traviata, and recently Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro in Uruguay.

Mr. Vieira has sung over 105 operatic roles with such companies as the San Francisco Opera, the Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento Opera and Opera Santa Barbara to name a few. He recently made his solo debuts with San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall and the Washington Chorale at the Kennedy Center, and was world finalist of the Fifth Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition in Philadelphia. Mr. Vieira can be seen as Gubetta on the San Francisco Opera’s DVD of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia released by the Euroarts label.