Soprano Emily Lyday Yiannias enjoys an active career as a soloist and chamber musician. Recent solo engagements include Bach Christmas Oratorio with the Whiting Park Festival Orchestra, and Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard with the Valparaiso University Symphony.  Ms. Yiannias is often seen on the concert stage as a member of Music of the Baroque, Chicago’s premier 26 voice chamber ensemble. She appears on the group’s Emmy nominated PBS program, A Renaissance Christmas. She has soloed with Music of the Baroque, Valparaiso University Bands and Symphony Orchestra, Valparaiso University Bach Institute, Whiting Park Festival Orchestra, Michigan City Municipal Band, Northwest Festival Orchestra, as a guest artist with the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus, AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, and the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist in the Requiems of Mozart, Faure, and John Rutter, as well as Handel’s Messiah. On the operatic stage, Ms. Yiannias has appeared with Opera for the Young, Light Opera Works, and was hand-picked by director Robert Altman to appear in the world premiere of William Bolcom’s opera, A Wedding, at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

In recital, Ms. Yiannias is particularly committed to performing 21st century music and music of lesser known composers. Recent recital engagements include two faculty artist recitals at Valparaiso University and a guest artist recital and lecture at St. Mary’s College in South Bend, IN entitled Beloved/Beheaded: Art Song of Women Composers. Ms. Yiannias has also performed George Crumb’s song cycle Apparition, a work requiring unusual timbres and extended vocal techniques.

Ms. Yiannias is a Metropolitan Opera National Council District Winner and Finalist and a Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation grant recipient. She holds degrees from DePauw University (Bachelor of Music, cum laude), and Northwestern University (Master of Music). She is a member of the voice faculty at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, where she resides with her husband Nick, daughter Angela, and son George.