A versatile artist, soprano Rachel Krehm is the co-founder and General Director of Opera 5. She works in opera, new music, art song, improvisation, voice and webseries acting, and is also a writer and producer. An avid believer in new creation, Rachel works in commissioning, workshopping, and creating Canadian art song and opera. In 2018, she premiered an orchestral song cycle by Vancouver based composer Ryan Trew on texts by her late sister Elizabeth Krehm called Come Closer. Rachel has now created a libretto to expand this work into a chamber opera with Ryan Trew. The opera explores processing grief through memories and dreams. Come Closer saw development workshops with Pacific Opera Victoria’ Artist Residency program in June 2022 and Opera McGill’s Beta Lab in the spring of 2022 and fall of 2023. Come Closer is receiving further workshopping through 2024 and 2025 with Opera 5 and Opera McGill’s Beta Lab and will be premiered by Opera 5 in 2025.

In 2019, Rachel performed the title role of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos with Highlands Opera Studio where her performance was described as “soulful” by Opera Canada. She has performed Poulenc’s La voix humaine multiple times, most recently with Toronto City Opera, where her performance was described as “a breathtaking virtuoso performance of boundless passion and seemingly limitless musicality” by Opera Going Toronto.

Rachel co-wrote, produced, and performed in Threepenny Submarine, Opera 5’s web series combining opera and puppetry in collaboration with Gazelle Automations. The series can be found online at www.threepennysubmarine.com. Rachel recently sang the song cycle version of Come Closer in November of 2023 with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with Opera 5 is June 2024. Season 2024-2025 will see Rachel as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra and Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, as well as creating the role of Big Sister in Come Closer.