Virginia Mims is an emerging American Soprano pursuing a career in classical performance. Her recent performance highlights include operatic and music-theater roles such as the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor (Sarasota Opera), Zemfira in Rachmaninoff’s Aleko, Cleopatra in Händel’s Giulio Cesare (IU Opera Theater), Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Brevard Music Center), Mary Bailey in Jake Heggie’s It’s A Wonderful Life (IU Opera Theater), and Marian Paroo in The Music Man (IU Opera Theater). Other notable performances include Sandrina in Haydn’s L’infedeltà delusa, Rowan in Britten’s The Little Sweep, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Vaness Opera Workshop), and Flower Maiden in IU’s Bicentennial 2019 production of Wagner’s Parsifal.
Growing up in a musical family, Virginia has a deep appreciation for all genres of music, but claims her passion in the classical realm. She began to sing at a young age with hymns and songs at church. Once she was accepted to sing in the professional octet there, she was also invited to sing in the professional chorus of Palm Beach Opera during their 2013-2015 seasons while she was attending Dreyfoos High School for the Arts.
Virginia holds prizes and grant awards from prestigious organizations such as Schmidt Vocal Foundation, YoungArts Foundation, Orpheus Vocal Competition, Classical Singer Competition, NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), Voice of the Future at Eisteddfod Competition, National Society of Arts and Letters, National Italian American Foundation, Indianapolis Matinee Musicale, and Il Circolo of the Palm Beaches. She has been awarded scholarships to summer festivals such as International Meistersinger Akademie, Berlin and Greek Opera Studios, Opera Lucca, Brevard Music Center, and University of Miami’s Frost School of Music Salzburg program. While in Salzburg, Virginia won the opportunity to sing a recital in Mirabellplatz and performed with SAOS Orchestra at the Mozarteum.
Virginia acknowledges the importance of a well-rounded musician and person and therefore has extensive training in ballet, piano, and foreign languages. Having taken 7 years of formal ballet classes, 10 years of private piano lessons, and many years of romance language classes and immersion, she enjoys learning new things and traveling. She has experience with Italian, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Polish language.
An avid recitalist, Virginia has performed recitals with diverse repertoire most notably at Carnegie Hall, the Hotel Eichenkranz (Wörlitz, DE), Apollon Theater (Syros, Greece), Sarasota Opera House, Royal Poinciana Chapel, Ormond Beach Episcopal Church, John Knox Village, and all over South Florida (where she is from). She holds her Masters in Music from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she taught as an Associate Instructor teaching in masterclass format and private voice lessons.