Prize-winning soprano Jessica Hanel Satava is enjoying a season of debuts. In addition to her premiere performance as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Lancaster, she performed her first role with the company as Inez in Il Trovatore with Center Stage Opera. Later that year, she returned to Center Stage Opera as Musetta in La bohème, and in March as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. In February 2010, she made her debut as Mimí in a concert version of La bohème. This past spring, Ms. Satava appeared as The Voice from Heaven in Verdi's Don Carlo with Repertory Opera Theater of Washington. This November will mark her New York debut at Merkin Hall for the premier of a new song cycle written for her by composer Keith Kramer, in addition to encore performances of his chamber works with string quartet, flute and piano.

Additional roles include Despina in Così fan tutte, Lisette in La Rondine, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, Beatrix in Offenbach's Les Bavards, Polly in The Threepenny Opera, Laurey in Oklahoma! and Miss Pinkerton in The Old Maid and the Thief in venues including the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater, Peabody Opera Theatre, South Bend Civic Theater, and Bethel College. She created title role in the premiere of Christopher Bassett's new opera, Janine of Newark, also at Peabody.

Ms. Satava's talent has been recognized with awards from many competitions, including both senior and professional divisions of the Baltimore Music Club Competition, the Marian B. and Samuel Bernstein Memorial Prize for Opera, the Russell T. Wonderlic Competition for Voice, the Kennett Symphony Voice Competition, Michigan NATS, and the Marie E. Crump Vocal Arts Competition. In demand as a recitalist, Ms. Satava has appeared in numerous concert series, including the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Community Concerts at Second, The Thursday Noon Recital Series, The Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church Recital Series, The Mansion at Strathmore, Old St. Paul's Tuesday Music Series, and Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD. She has appeared as a guest with Loyola College's Da Camera, most recently as soloist on an all-Bernstein program.

Ms. Satava earned her Master of Vocal Arts at The Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with William Sharp. She continued her studies with Ruth Drucker and Thomas Houser, her current teachers. Other influential teachers have included Eileen Farrell and Victoria Garrett.