Native Hawaiian soprano Tasha Hokuao Koontz has lent her “accurate, powerful voice” (Broadway World) to a gallery of leading operatic ladies and has been recognized by Parterre Box for her “sumptuous, gleaming lyric instrument” and by Opera Wire for her “secure silvery high notes.”

In 2024, Tasha will make her South America debut singing the title role of Tosca with Opera Nacional de Chile. In the same year, she returns to San Diego Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

In 2023, Tasha joined San Diego Opera to perform the roles of Nella in Gianni Schicchi and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica. A company favorite, Koontz debuted with San Diego Opera as Annina in La Traviata in 2017, and subsequently performed the roles of Edith in Pirates of Penzance, Frasquita in Carmen and High Priestess in Aïda, and covered the role of Mimì in La Bohème sung by Ana Maria Martinez. She also sang the role of Catrina in a 2019 workshop performance of El último sueño de Frida y Diego, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz and Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank. Ms. Koontz subsequently originated the role of Frida Image 1 in the world premiere performances of Frank’s opera in 2022. In San Diego Opera’s 2021 concert entitled, “One Amazing Night,” Koontz “wowed with a knockout performance” (San Diego Union Tribune).

Other 2023 performances include a debut with the Camarada Chamber Ensemble singing Brahms Op.91 Zwei Gesänge and Bach Cantata BWV 209, the Brahms Requiem with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, the Rachmaninov Vocalise and Poulenc Gloria with the Helena Symphony, and the world premiere of a two person chamber opera, Her New Home, written by composer Polina Nazaykinskaya and librettist Konstanin Soukhovetski with the prestigious Garth Newel Piano Quartet at the Garth Newel Summer Festival. Ms.Koontz will also return to the Del Mar International Composers’ Symposium in August to continue to bring new music to life with up and coming composers.

Ms.Koontz returned to San Diego Symphony in 2022 to sing selections from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt under Conductor Laureate Jahja Ling as well as to cover the soprano solos in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Ms. Koontz also had the honor of being invited to participate in a master class led by esteemed conductor Riccardo Muti of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra singing selections from Un Ballo in Maschera. Other 2022 performance highlights include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Glacier Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the San Diego Festival chorus & Orchestra as well as the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Schubert’s Mass in G with the San Diego Festival Chorus & Orchestra, and a concert performance of Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Fortissima Collective.

In 2019, Koontz made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim, bringing her “fulsome, penetrating soprano voice” and “unflappable poise” (Chicago Sun Times) to the role of High Priestess in Verdi’s Aïda under the baton of Maestro Riccardo Muti. Koontz was slated to make her return to the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus in 2022 in Mahler’s Second “Resurrection” Symphony but, unfortunately, due to the covid-19 pandemic those performances were canceled. She is scheduled to return for the performances of Brahms’ Requiem in 2023. There, she has previously been seen as a soloist in Bach’s Cantata No. 106, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.

A frequent concert soloist, Koontz was to make her debut with Palomar Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9), North Coast Symphony Orchestra (“Songs and Dances,” Songs by Lewis Carroll), MiraCosta Symphony Orchestra (Corigliano’s Fern Hill) and the Oregon Music Festival (Orff’s Carmina Burana), all postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior, she sang as soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the San Diego Symphony, Vivaldi’s Gloria with the San Diego Festival Chorus & Orchestra, and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the California Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem, Strauss’ Four Last Songs, Handel’s Messiah, Poulenc’s Gloria, Bach’s B minor Mass, and Fauré’s Requiem and has appeared with the Chicago Arts Orchestra, and orchestras of Newfoundland, Coeur d’Alene, Spokane and Northwestern University.

Additional roles and houses on Koontz’s résumé include Violetta in La Traviata and Mimì in La Bohème with Opera on the Avalon, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Bay View Music Festival, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte with Central City Opera, Alice Ford in Falstaff with Indiana University Opera Theater and with /kor/ Productions in Chicago, Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro with Northwestern University, and Woman 1 in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath with Sugar Creek Opera. She also performed the role of Violetta in La Traviata in a production with the Fortissima Collective, an organization Koontz co-founded in 2021 to create performance opportunities for women and artists from underrepresented communities in Southern California.

Ms. Koontz took first place in the Musical Merit Foundation Awards competition and the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Young Artist Competition, second place in the Susan and Virginia Hawk Vocal Scholarship Competition, and was the recipient of an encouragement award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Western Region. She was also chosen to compete in the semi-finals of the Belvedere Competition, the Premiere Opera Competition, and the Mentoris Vocal Competition and was named a Finalist in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition and the Zenith Opera Competition. She has also won awards and recognition in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Illinois and Indiana Districts and Central Region as well as the San Diego District and Western Region, the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Competition, the Bel Canto Foundation Competition, and the Brava! Opera Theater Competition.

Ms. Koontz earned her master’s degree in music from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she studied with acclaimed soprano Carol Vaness, and received her bachelor’s degree in music from Northwestern University.