California born soprano Akela Franklin is steadily earning her place as one of New England’s rising classical singers. Blessed with a lush, agile full lyric instrument, she feels equally at home performing opera, art song, and musical theatre. Ms. Franklin is especially known for her exuberant interpretations of German Romantic repertoire, Spanish art song & zarzuela, and Golden Age musical ballads.

In recent years, Ms. Franklin has focused her efforts on music education and performing locally. She recently joined the staff at Park Ave Congregational Church in Arlington as the soprano section leader and soloist, and she subs for other congregations and ensembles as much as she can. Previously, she served as the Children's Music Coordinator and frequent soprano soloist and ringer at First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton.

Ms. Franklin's operatic resume includes Quatrième Esprit and Surintendant des Plaisirs in Cendrillon (Promenade Opera Project), Ghita in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (Longy School of Music), Ottilie in von Suppé’s operetta The Finishing School (Longy School of Music), and Alice in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory (University of Puget Sound). In 2014, Ms. Franklin made her international debut as Second Witch in Dido & Aeneas on the Greek island of Lefkada (8th Annual Lefkas Music Week). She has also appeared in opera scenes as Béatrice (Béatrice et Benedict), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Amy (Little Women), and Cunegonde (Candide) and in opera choruses for productions of Der Zwerg, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Le Comte Ory, and The Pirates of Penzance.

Ms. Franklin is an avid recitalist of both chamber and solo works. Recent highlights include a collaborative, Halloween themed, dinner-theatre style concert entitled “A Recital You May Not Survive”, as well and her M.M. recital “Queens, Fairytales, & Fantasies” (2018). In 2016, Ms. Franklin performed alongside several of her peers in Longy School of Music’s “Winterreise in a New Light,” a staged, multi-performer production of Schubert’s Winterreise, directed by Jane Struss. The performance was named by WBUR’s Lloyd Schwartz as 2016’s best student vocal recital in Boston.

In addition to her work on the stage, Ms. Franklin leads an active career as a teaching artist across the city of Boston. She currently teaches in a variety of voice, choral, and musical theatre positions at Community Music Center of Boston and Brookline Music School. She is also extremely passionate about vocal pedagogy and has been operating a vibrant private voice studio for over four years. 

Ms. Franklin holds a Master of Music (M.M.) from Longy School of Music of Bard College and a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) from University of Puget Sound, with a minor in Religion. She is a student of Carol Mastrodomenico. In addition to her voice activities, Ms. Franklin is currently enrolled in the Alexander Technique Teacher Training Program at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.