Originally from Colorado, soprano Tessa McQueen was a 2024 National Finalist in the Met’s Laffont Competition, now in her first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the Met’s 2024–25 season, she will make her company debut as the Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, sing the Priestess in Aida, and cover Chloe in The Queen of Spades. Recent operatic engagements include singing Nedda in Pagliacci and covering Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Merola Opera Program’s Schwabacher Summer Concert Series, covering Marguerite in Faust at Wolf Trap Opera, the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia and the title role of L'Incoronazione di Poppea at Rice University. On the concert stage, she has appeared as a soprano soloist in Mozart’s Grand C-minor Mass with the Washington City Choir and John Rutter’s Requiem with the Rice Chorale. In addition to her success in the Laffont Competition, she won third place in the 2023 Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, third place in the 2022 Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, and was the recipient of the 2022 Young Artist of the Season Award from Central City Opera. She is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program, and the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera. She holds degrees in voice from Oklahoma City University, where she graduated with honors, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.