New York • Los Angeles • Perth
Cara is a composer, singer, and researcher born and raised in New York. When she was eight years old, she joined the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus and sang in hundreds of performances over the course of six years alongside Denyce Graves, Renée Fleming, and others. In 2005, she was selected by the Met to play the solo role of Emmy in the Gotham Chamber Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring.
Cara studied music and science at St. Paul’s School and went on to pursue a dual degree in Music Composition and Cognitive Science at the University of Southern California. She has composed works for choir, winds, strings, and orchestra. Collaboration is at the heart of her artistic endeavors; recent engagements include commissions for the The Choral Collective, Iris Collective, Bonnie de la Hunty, and 2020 Perth Festival Ancient Voices featuring The Gesualdo Six, Voyces, and The Giovanni Consort, arrangements for Perth Symphony Orchestra, and music for short films and dance productions.
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As a four-year member of the USC Chamber Singers, she sang with the Rolling Stones, toured to Australia, New Zealand, Beijing, and Seoul, participated in the 10th World Symposium on Choral Music, sang film and video game soundtracks live at Disney Hall and the Dolby Theatre, and performed with the LA Phil, LA Chamber Orchestra, and LA Master Chorale. Cara is a member of the Grammy Award-winning ensemble, Tonality, and has sung with Tiësto and Michael Giacchino. She previously sang with and was the Treasurer of the premiere West Australian choir, Voyces. Cara also teaches voice, piano, composition, theory, and music technology, and has taught at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School, Bloom School of Music & Dance, and the Los Angeles Music & Arts School.
Cara currently works at Occidental College as a Research Analyst focused on advancement and CRM implementation. She worked with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for three years, combining her music and research knowledge to develop data-driven processes, increase audience engagement, and produce digital concerts. At the USC Brain & Creativity Institute, she performed neuroscience research studying the effects of music training on the brain, empathy, and general development. The bulk of her work focused on longitudinal study examining music training’s effects on child development in collaboration with the LA Phil and their youth orchestra program. She was also fortunate to be involved in pioneering neuroimaging research related to group singing and social cognition at the Yale Brain Function Lab.
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