Jessica the Soprano
Praised for her "sparkling tone" and "having a voice that makes people feel good",
...soprano Jessica Arielle Bloch has been seen as a versatile performer, arts educator, and leader whose work spans opera, art song, and new music creation.
Most recently Jessica has been seen performing in Boston with Horizon Ensemble under the baton of Julian Gau, singing Brontzi's letters in Quinn Gutman's song cycle, We Will Outlive Them... Letter's to Rivka from Galicia. A project Jessica produced using her family's letters from the former region of Galicia, now apart of modern-day Ukraine. These eleven letters about love, family, and resilience were set to music by Quinn and orchestrated by Julian for Horizon Ensemble and five voices. Starting off this 2026-2027 season, Jessica will reprise Brontzi at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York City this September 2026, again under the baton of Julian Gau with Celadon Stars World Orchestra. Other upcoming performances include Opera on the Prado in concert with NEMPAC Opera in Boston October 2026, and singing her first Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart with Opera 51 in Concord this December 2026.
Opera 51 and the historic Walden Theater has become a home venue for Jessica. She has sung several past seasons there with Alan Yost and the Opera 51 Orchestra including Lola in Opera 51's Cavalleria Rusticana (2023), Zerlina in Don Giovanni (2024), and Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte (2025). Operatic highlights from the past seasons coming out of the pandemic also include performing operatic arias with the Hawaii International Music Festival and The Chamber Orchestra of Kona, debuting with the Brockton Symphony Orchestra and Opera del West for their concert performance of Carmen in the opera chorus. She then continued with the Opera del West season, singing several characters close to her heart in the Workshop Performance of Dan Shore’s new opera, Greeners. The opera is about Jewish immigrants and their experience in the United States during the 20th century which tells a story similiar to that of Jessica’s own heritage. She sang Fanny, Marmie, and Khaya-Leah and looks forward to continuing to support this new work. Additionally, in the 2023-2024 season, she competed as a finalist in the Corsica Lirica Opera Competition, and in the Boston district round of the Laffont Competition.
Outside of opera, Jessica has been very active in art song. Previous to the full orchestration and premiere of We Will Outlive Them, Jessica debuted the 4th letter "Third Letter From Moshe" with Rafe Schaberg, on piano at Sparks and Wiry Cry's NYC Songslam 2024 at the National Sawdust Theater. Recently Jessica also joined The Gena Branscombe Project, reviving many works by women that previously went unpublished. Earlier this past season, Jessica performed as the soprano soloist in Winds of Change, Songs of Time: a recital series in New York City and Boston celebrating works by the pen women; some of which had never been recorded before including songs by Gena Branscombe, Harriet Ware, Mary Howe, Mary Salter, Pearl Curran, and more.
During the pandemic, Jessica stayed active in her career, performing as a Finalist for the 2022 Lucine Amara Art Song Competition, and making her Carnegie Hall debut with Vincerò Academy at their 2022 Gala Concert, where she sang excerpts as Susanna from Le nozze di Figaro and Marie from La fille du régiment, respectively, under the direction of Maestro Abdiel Vàzquez. Between 2020-2022, Jessica was contracted as a resident artist of Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, performing in their out-door opera-concert of Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart as Blonde, and performed in their Finding Home Festival, singing Yniold (Pelléas et Mélisande composed by Debussy), Concepcion/Young Juana (Juana composed by Carla Lucero), and covering Amore (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria composed by Monteverdi). Later that year, she sang with Music On Site Inc. as their Amahl cover in Amahl and the Night Visitors and Opera Scenes Showcase. In addition to her role debuts, Jessica sang with the Boston Festival for New Jewish Music, NEMPAC Opera's Opera From the Balcony, and Christman Opera Company. With COC, Jessica premiered Dana Kaufman's Three Beasts, adapted for piano and voice.
Early career performance credits include originating the role of Miss Johnson in Douglas Buchanan’s World Premiere of Bessie and Ma; covering Belinda in Dido and Aeneas; Amalia Balash in She Loves Me; Titania in Paul Richards The Loathly Lady with Hartford Opera Theater's New in November Nine Festival; Noèmie in Cendrillon, Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Nella cover in Gianni Schicchi as a Renee Greenberg Emerging Artist with Opera Fusion, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Despina in Così fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte under the baton of Maestro Christian Schulz at the Vienna Summer Music Festival.
In addition to being an active performer, Jessica is a very passionate arts leader, voice teacher and educator. She was the Interim Artistic Director of MassOpera (2024-2025), producing a concert of Latin American music, Cantos de mi Tierra, and the opera Alcina. During her tenure she launched the Community & Youth Ensemble which welcomed community based avocational singers of high school age and above to join the opera chorus. Jessica has been teaching for 10 years, and is the founding voice teacher of The Bloch Voice Studio at Bloch Performing Arts. Additionally, she has been on Voice Faculty at the Austria Summer Music Festival (2023) and at Varna International Music Festival (2025). Jessica is also the Artistic Director and Scenes Stage-Director for the Summer Vocal Institute at New England Conservatory and on NEC's Expanded Education Voice Faculty, teaching private lessons and assistant directing the Vocal Theater Lab students. So far her students have gone on to win competitions, perform lead roles, and receive cultural honors for their performances: (i.e. 1st Place in the NATS National Competition for Youth Classical 2024, 1st place in the 2022 Student Hall Competition, Captain Walker in The Who’s Tommy the Musical, Miss Hannigan in Annie the Musical, multiple honors of singing The United States National Anthem, and students accepted and returning to summer programs at Julliard, Brevard, Interlochen, Northwestern, and more).
Jessica received her Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Music with an Italian minor from The Florida State University
(2015), her Master Performance Certificate (2017) and Master of Music in Vocal Performance from The University of Connecticut (2019) under the tutelage of Dr. Constance Rock. Jessica also studied with Dr. Dana Lynne Varga, and currently studies with both Kirsten Arnold Chambers and Amy Shoremount-Obra.
Fast facts about me:
Not only do I love the composer, Puccini (see video below) but I also have named my first fur-baby, Puccini! You can follow him and his brother (my husband’s cat), Dio, @puccinianddio on Instagram!
I’m a Florida-girl at heart and lived there most of my life!
I am so fortunate to do what I love everyday and seek to share that joy and give back as much as I can!
I love my coffee in the mornings!
