Brooke Tolley is a native of Roanoke, Virginia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from Liberty University and a Master of Arts in Voice from Radford University. She made her professional singing debut in 2011 as Kate Pinkerton in Opera Roanoke’s production of Madama Butterfly and has since performed in numerous Opera Roanoke productions including Il Trovatore, Carmen, The Pirates of Penzance, Sweeney Todd, and Susannah. She has been a Young Artist at Asheville Lyric Opera and Chicago Summer Opera, where she made her debut as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute in 2014, returning to cover the role at Opera Roanoke in 2015. As a concert soloist, Ms. Tolley has performed in Handel’s Messiah, DuBois’ Seven Last Words of Christ, Schubert’s Mass in G, and made her Lincoln Center debut in 2017 singing the soprano solo in Pepper Choplin’s A Journey with the Shepherd.

As a voice teacher, she has maintained a private voice studio for students across the Roanoke Valley since 2012 and has taught voice lessons at Jefferson Center’s Music Lab and Hollins University.

She participated in Leadership Roanoke Valley’s Class of 2019 and was chosen as one of only three opera administrators across the country to attend The Hart Institute for Women Opera Conductors and Administrators at The Dallas Opera in 2018. Brooke was appointed General Director of Opera Roanoke in 2019. She is passionate about connecting audiences of all ages with opera in both traditional and site-specific venues and believes that opera should be accessible to all.