Coloratura Soprano Tara Stafford is a native of Rogersville, Missouri and received her BM from Drury University and her MM from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Following her studies, she was a Young Artist member of the Springfield Regional Opera and also an apprentice with the Asheville Lyric Opera which shortly thereafter led to her debut in the ALO as Della in David Conte’s The Gift of the Magi.
Tara has been seen in such varied roles as Laurie in The Tenderland, Cunegunde in Candide, The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Gilda in Rigoletto, Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music, Madeline/Isabelle in The Face On the Barroom Floor, and Jenny in Robert Ward’s Roman Fever to name only a few. She has also been seen as Beatrice in the premiere of Kevin Clark's chamber opera, Some Ado. In 2011 she sang her first Mimi in La Bohème in Springfield (Missouri) in March 2011 and participated both in a Song Recital and in an Opera Gala alongside Elizabeth Connell and Michael Spyres at the Bad Urach Festival in Germany.
In March of 2013 Tara returned to the Springfield Regional Opera to sing her first Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. In July she joined the Rossini Opera Festival In Bad Wildbad, Germany, singing the role of Jemmy in Guillaume Tell. In September 2013 she sang Voix celèste in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Engagements in 2015 include concerts alongside Michael Spyres in New Orleans and at the Boyne Music Festival.
Tara Stafford has performed with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Springfield Symphony, Greensboro Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, The Ozarks Chorale, the Asheville Symphony and the Asheville Lyric Opera in Asheville, NC.
In addition to her operatic career, she has been involved in numerous productions ranging from oratorio to chamber music, concerts to musicals.