Mezzo-soprano Jazmine Olwalia has been described as a “powerhouse” that brings “humor and spunk” to her roles. A current member of the Pittsburgh Opera Young Artists Program, she is heard this season as the Third Wood Sprite in Rusalka, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, the title role in Handel’s Ariodante and Girl in Denis and Katya which will be featured at the Opera America conference in May 2023. In 2022 the mezzo joined Opera Theatre of St. Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, singing Mercedes in Carmen, and covering Miriam in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s Awakenings. She then made a role and company debut with West Edge Opera as Miss Forcible in Coraline, based on the award-winning children’s novel. In 2021 Jazmine made her Portland Opera debut as Sharonne Salaam in Anthony Davis’s The Central Park Five. 2020 credits include Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera and a new work reading of Sunder with Annapolis Opera. 

Third-prize winner of the Houston Gilbert and Sullivan Career Grant Competition, Jazmine was a semi-finalist in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. She returned to Wolf Trap for her second year as a studio artist in 2021, performing in Cendrillon/Savitri and a concert version of Sweeney Todd, where she covered the role of Mrs. Lovett. In 2019-2020 Jazmine portrayed the title role in Ariodante with the Maryland Opera Studio and made a role debut with Bel Cantanti Opera as Giovanna in Rigoletto.

A finalist in the 2020 Dallas Opera Guild Biennial Lone Star Vocal Competition, she was also awarded third place in the Pre-Professional Division of the George Shirley Vocal Competition, and won the Hilda Harris Mezzo-Soprano prize in 2019. Recent roles include Iman/Xochitl in the world premiere of Hajar with the Maryland Opera Studio, Ayah in The Secret Garden as well as Princess Peyai in Amazing Grace with Utah Festival Opera. Other credits include Tituba in The Crucible, Agafia Milhailovna in Anna Karenina, and Grace Ansley in Roman Fever with the Moores Opera Center. A participant in the National Music Festival’s 2019 Voice Apprentice Program, she performed scenes and arias from Così fan tutte and Carmen.

Jazmine is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s Opera Studio and received her BM degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Houston.