Sophia Pelekasis is a Greek-American mezzo-soprano and actress with a burning passion for making art a universal and empowering language. Currently, Ms. Pelekasis is a second-year master’s student in Vocal Arts at The Juilliard School, where she also completed her undergraduate studies under the tutelage of Darrell Babidge. Sophia is proud to be a recipient of the Toulmin Fellowship, covering the full tuition of her master’s studies at Juilliard.
In the 2026/27 season, Sophia will perform the role of La Signora Giuditta in Nino Rota’s I due timidi with Juilliard Opera. In the spring, she will appear as Concepción in Maurice Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, with performances in the Wilson Theater and Alice Tully Hall, under the baton of Louis Langrée.
Sophia began the 2025/26 season by being named a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition for the Capitol District. At Juilliard, she covered the role of Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and performed a set of musical theater selections at the Juilliard Fall Festival celebrating the opening of the Juilliard Station. Throughout the season, she also performed with Juilliard 415, appeared in a musical program celebrating her Hellenic heritage for the Prometheus Foundation, and performed as a soloist in a Liederabend curated by Alisdair Hogarth.
In the 2024/25 season, Sophia performed at the Harvard Club of New York, presenting a heartfelt selection of Greek art songs celebrating her heritage. In the spring of 2025, Ms. Pelekasis appeared in a recital featuring the works of composer Tom Cipullo at The Juilliard School, performed at the Greek Independence Day Parade in Philadelphia and at the American Hellenic Institute in Washington, D.C., and presented her Graduation Recital at The Juilliard School. She was also featured as a soloist during Juilliard’s Commencement at David Geffen Hall in a performance honoring world-renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel. In the summer of 2025, Sophia participated in Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy (YAVA).
In the 2023/24 season, Ms. Pelekasis made her role debut as Marcellina in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Juilliard Opera. Additionally, Pelekasis performed at the invitation of the Harvard Club of New York in celebration of Clive Davis’s 92nd birthday. Sophia performed the national anthem for the Philadelphia Phillies’ Hellenic Night at the invitation of the American Hellenic Institute and for the PanHellenic Scholarship Foundation Gala. She also performed with Juilliard 415 in a reading of Handel’s Messiah.
In the 2022/23 season, Pelekasis performed in a recital honoring the 100th anniversary of Maria Callas’s birth at the Kaufman Music Center at the invitation of the Hellenic-American Cultural Foundation. Sophia also returned to her homeland of Greece to perform as a soloist at the Theocharakis Foundation for its annual Christmas concert in Athens.
Ms. Pelekasis has also appeared as a soloist at numerous prominent Hellenic events and venues, including the U.S. Capitol, the United States Institute of Peace for the OXI Day Foundation, the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Embassy in Greece, and events for AHEPA and the Daughters of Penelope.
Her repertoire extends across opera, musical theatre, and original works. Sophia’s operatic and operetta roles have included Ma Moss in Copland’s The Tender Land and Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus at The Catholic University of America. Her musical theatre credits include Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia!, and Cinderella in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Edison Theatre Company.
