2024 Voice Graduate Alissa Goretsky Signs to Askonas Holt

Alissa Goretsky stepped from SFCM's graduation stage to the world's opera halls.

The 2024 Voice graduate has been signed by Askonas Holt, one of the artist management companies comprising SFCM's Global Creative Alliance. She'll be managed by another Conservatory alum: 2011 Voice graduate Dominic Domingo, who also studied with Goretsky's private teacher, César Ulloa.

"From the moment Alissa walked into my studio at 17, I sensed that she possessed an extraordinary gift," Ulloa says. "With her beautiful, big lyric voice, wonderfully musical mind, and remarkable ability to absorb everything I taught her, she was an exceptional student. Throughout her studies at SFCM—from her freshman years through completing her master's and Artist Diploma—she continued to grow into the artist she is today. It has been one of the great joys of my teaching career. She has all the qualities needed for a major career, and I couldn't be happier to see her dreams become a reality."

"None of this was ever planned," Goretsky says. "An audition is an audition. You never know the outcome—and that's not the point. The point is to believe in yourself 100 percent."

To call Goretsky's post-graduate life a whirlwind would be an understatement: Graduating in 2024, she joined Houston Grand Opera as a studio artist and a year later was added to the ranks of the winners of the Metropolitan Opera's Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. From there, she covered Helmwige in Die Walküre and Mimì in La bohème with The Santa Fe Opera in 2025, returning to New Mexico in 2026 to cover Tatyana in Eugene Onegin and debuting as Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.

César Ulloa and Alissa Goretsky.

Her path at SFCM—where she studied with Ulloa from the age of 17 onwards—is in many ways a blueprint for how students at the Conservatory benefit from SFCM's Global Creative Alliance, which also includes Opus 3 Artists and Pentatone Music. While at SFCM, Goretsky sang for Patricia Racette, an Opus 3 Artist who has repeatedly visited SFCM to direct productions and give masterclasses.

"Having guests like Patricia at SFCM did a really good job of preparing me for going from school to a young artist program of such a high caliber," Goretsky says. "One time we had Marilyn Horne come in, and John Churchwell—and he's actually now the head of music at Houston Grand Opera."

Ulloa—who Goretsky calls "hands-down, the best mentor anyone could ever have"—was the connection between the soprano and her future manager. "I met Dominic when he came and did a talk at SFCM, and I remembered thinking, 'If I could have anyone as management, I hope that it's him,' because he's seen and built people's careers in a very smart way," Goretsky recalls.

Domingo and Goretsky met in Santa Fe. She originally remembers thinking that Domingo "was so out of my caliber" when Ulloa suggested they meet. "I'm in the cantina eating Frito Pie when Dominc comes up to me,"  Goretsky recalls, laughing. The pair bonded over both being from Los Angeles—"We talked about the Lakers for a little bit, we talked about the Kings"—before Domingo asked Goretsky to sing for him.

"I texted the pianist, like, 'Hey. I need you right now,'" Goretsky remembers. "In a sweatshirt and leggings, mind you," she says. She sang for him, and, as the cliche goes, the rest is history. "Dominic really has shown that he believes in me 100 percent," Goretsky says. "He's always there. He's always picked up the phone when I have questions, even something I think is stupid like, 'I have an audition in five minutes. I have no idea what to start with.'"

But despite her rapid rise, Goretsky's advice to her younger self is simple. Relax.

"I wish I could hold little Alisa, 19 years old, in her second year of her bachelor's and say, 'It's not that deep. You have the time to join a pickleball league. You have the time to play Fortnite.  You have the time for a partner, to be with family. It's okay to have a glass of wine even if you have an audition the next day.'"

Goretsky continues, "I had a lot of anxiety about what was going to happen next. And the truth is, when you decide to become a musician and follow your passion, there is no chart. There is no, 'This is step one, this is step two, this is step three.' My career is going to look different from that soprano and that soprano. It just is, and that's okay. It's difficult not to have anxiety about 'what if,' but I worked at Lululemon before. I worked at Starbucks before. You do what you gotta do because you love what you do. And if you just stay in your tunnel and in your own lane, things will happen the way they need to happen. Everything happens for a reason. Your hard work will come to fruition, and even then there is always more to learn from and grow with."

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