Most days, Jessica Rivera is busy teaching one-on-one voice lessons, attending meetings with music department faculty and helping prospective students learn about the music program at Miami University.
What most people don't know is that she is a Grammy award-winning opera singer, with a deep passion for music and has performed with orchestras around the world.
Rivera started voice lessons at 9 years old when she learned about opera and grew her music tastes. For as long as she can remember, she said she has loved singing and believed she would have a future in the music industry.
“I decided at the age of 14 that I wanted to be an international opera singer,” Rivera said. “I don’t think that’s a common thing for most 14-year-olds.”
Rivera grew up in Los Angeles and attended Pepperdine University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in music. She also attended the University of Southern California, where she earned her master’s degree in music in vocal performance. She started her singing career as a resident artist with the Los Angeles Opera from 2001 to 2004 but was still drawn to her childhood dream of singing internationally.
Before she was a teacher at Miami, she won a Grammy in 2006 for Best Opera Recording. She was one of the principal singers of the winning opera recording, “Ainadamar” which she sang with the Santa Fe Opera and the Atlanta Symphony.
“I never dreamed that big,” Rivera said. “I knew I wanted to be an opera singer, I knew I wanted to sing around the world, but it never landed on my radar that I could win a Grammy.”
Rivera came to Ohio in 2011 when she was invited to sing an opera called “The Flowering Tree” by John Adams for the Cincinnati Opera. She ended up meeting her future husband the first day she arrived and has lived in Middletown ever since.
This is her fourth year teaching at Miami as an assistant professor of voice in the music department. Rivera teaches applied voice, where she shows students how their voices work and helps them apply that knowledge to their performances.
She also ensures her students can sing in other languages, and that they know how to teach others how to sing, which is an important part of music students’ curriculum.
Vincent Giuliano, a sophomore music education major, works with Rivera to build his semester collection of six art song pieces every week.
“As a singer, I would describe her as mind-bogglingly talented,” Giuliano said, “and as a teacher, I would say she is understanding and uplifting.”
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As a result of her success in the music industry, she wants to help students recognize their own potential and passion for music. Rivera said she has enjoyed watching the first-years who started with her become seniors and give their final recitals.
Kayla Hughes, a senior music education major and music theater minor, has been Rivera’s student for seven semesters, taking hour-long voice lessons once a week.
“I’ve been with her my entire time at Miami,” Hughes said. “We’ve grown really close, in our personal and professional relationship.”
Hughes said she admires Rivera’s dedication and work ethic as a mother, teacher and advisor at Miami. She also describes her willingness to be there for her students not only inside of the music room, but outside of the classes she teaches, at church performances and theater events.
“She’s very supportive of all our endeavors,” Hughes said. “She wants to help us grow as musicians, but also really as human beings.”
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