Miami University Department of Music alum Antonia Tamer was preparing for a tour of China last spring when the pandemic cancelled her performances. In the beginning, when artists were starting to see their work cancelled indefinitely, she felt hopeless. After seeing an Instagram video of a well known baritone singing for his neighbors from his balcony, it clicked, “we live on the second floor facing the street and our windows slide all the way open.” She made a sign for the window and the following weekend plugged her piano tracks into her speaker and started singing for a small audience in her Portland, Oregon neighborhood. Thanks to a friend, who called a local news station, the following performance was well attended. “A favorite moment was seeing an elderly woman and what looked like her daughter bring folding chairs to sit on the sidewalk and listen to my little concert,” shared Tamer. 

The “little concerts” caught the attention of several media outlets. “The biggest shock was seeing a segment about my concert on BBC World. I'm not often speechless, but this time I can truly say that I was.” She hopes to start the concerts again once the weather is nicer in Portland, “The response was so positive, and it was incredible to be able to spread joy during such an intense time in our world.” Tamer found joy in the concerts as well, “my favorite song to sing was "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" by Robert Schumann. It is usually performed by a tenor, but as it is my favorite art song, I added it to my program to share with my neighbors. It was a lovely spring day and filled me with so much joy being able to sing it for people.”

Soprano Antonia Tamer is a native of Frankfurt, Germany. She earned her MM in Vocal Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her BM in Vocal Performance at Miami University. “I absolutely loved studying with my voice teacher at Miami, Alison Acord, and being part of  her voice studio, which we jokingly called "Studio Awesome,” shared Tamer. “I made some lifelong friends and value the time we spent learning from each other deeply.” 

Tamer joined Portland Opera in 2017 to make her role debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and to cover Mimì in La bohème. She returned to Portland Opera in 2019 to make further role debuts: Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Arminda in Mozart's early masterpiece La finta giardiniera. She has also appeared with the Natchez Music Festival in the title role of Madama Butterfly and with Opera San José as the Sandman in Hänsel und Gretel and Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica. 

Tamer also enjoys a particularly strong relationship with Boston Lyric Opera, where she covered the title role of Tosca (2017) and Frasquita in Carmen (2016), in addition to creating Madge Docherty in the world premiere of The Nefarious, Immoral But Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare. She rejoined the company for their 2019 production of The Rape of Lucretia, in which she made her role debut as the Female Chorus.