Praised by The Wall Street Journal for her “delicate” and “ideal” title role portrayal in La Calisto at The Glimmerglass Festival,  Filipino American creative Emilie Kealani Suarez will be making her Opera Philadelphia debut as Corinna in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims and has been named an Emerging Artists for their 2025/2026 season.  

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Seen onstage with The Santa Fe Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Curtis Opera Theatre, Emilie made a “Eindringlich gezeichnet und vokal erfüllt” (hauntingly drawn and vocally fulfilled) international debut with Staatsoper Stuttgart in their 2023 Calixto Bieito revival of Jenůfa.  With crossover credits in Candide, Into the Woods, and West Side Story, Kealani’s performances have been celebrated for displaying “a joy in singing, an empathy in her outrageous stage personality, and jaw-dropping technique.” Beyond the stage, she is a returning guest to PBS WHYY TV-12 programming, featured in the Soundbites Column of OPERA NEWS, and the founder of the Kapwa Passion Project.  An alumna of The Curtis Institute of Music (MM ‘25) and The Manhattan School of Music (BM ‘21), Emilie’s features includes Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Cunegonde in Candide,  Dalinda in Ariodante, Vixen* in The Cunning Little Vixen, Miss Jessel in Turn of the Screw and Poppea* in The Comet/Poppea.  Graduating from high school at the age of 16, she received the prestigious title of U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.

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​​Emilie is a proud Filipina from San Francisco, with deep roots that extend to Pā‘ia, Maui, where her grandmother was born and raised, bringing the spirit and influence of Hawaiian culture into her identity. Self-taught on the traditional ukulele, Emilie grew up surrounded by family who danced Hula and Tahitian.  Programming Kundimans—traditional Tagalog love songs—with the hope of sharing this exquisite and emotionally rich music with wider audiences sparked the creation of the Kapwa Passion Project in 2024. The project strives to bring AAPI artists together, creating spaces for us to cultivate a shared sense of community through music with events ranging from multidisciplinary recitals to panel discussions with artists representing the Bengali, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Tongan communities. Kawpa is featured on PBS WHYY TV-12 in their new Concert Specials Series throughout May 2025 and 2026 in celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. 

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Gaining recognition from notable organizations, Emilie received the inaugural Stephen de Maio Memorial Award and an encouragement award from The Gerda Lissner Foundation.  She won the Philadelphia District of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, advancing to the Middle Atlantic Region, and holds titles with Opera Mississippi's John Alexander National Vocal Competition, The National Shirley Rabb Winston Competition, Schmidt Undergraduate Awards, Beach Blanket Babylon, and National YoungArts Foundation.