Born and raised in Minneapolis, Francesca is a versatile performer with professional stage experience and classical training in voice and violin. She recently graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Psychology.
Francesca began her professional theatrical career at age 9 in the Guthrie Theater's A Christmas Carol, playing violin onstage as the Fiddler's Daughter. In 2008, she played the title roles in both Madeline and the Gypsies at the Children's Theatre Company, and Walleye Kid: The Musical with Mu Performing Arts at the Ordway McKnight Theatre. Most recently, she starred opposite her sister Isabella in an acclaimed run of Jiehae Park's peerless at Theater Mu and brought her violin back onstage as Ex-Girlfriend/Violinist in Once at Theater Latte Da.
At Stanford University, Francesca was active in the music and theatre communities. She starred as Christine in a sold-out run of The Phantom of the Opera and was twice awarded the Rita Taylor Vocal Prize by the Music Department. She also performed the title role in The Ballad of Baby Doe (opposite internationally-acclaimed baritone Eugene Brancoveanu) and was selected to perform in a master class with Tony Award-winning music director Ted Sperling. As a violinist, she served as concertmaster of both the Stanford Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestras.
A devoted advocate of diversity in the arts, Francesca served on the board of the Stanford Asian American Theater Project (founded in 1978 by David Henry Hwang). With AATP, Francesca made her Stanford theatrical debut as Desdemona Wong in a sold-out run of Lauren Yee's Ching Chong Chinaman. She produced, performed in, and wrote original string arrangements for Congrats! You've Been (Type)cast, a concert that explored typecasting and non-traditional casting in musical theatre. As an intern at Stanford Live, the campus' arts presenting organization, she produced a roundtable discussion titled The Representation of Race in Stanford Theatre.
Aside from the arts and academics, Francesca is passionate about mental health advocacy and suicide prevention. She has volunteered as a Crisis Counselor at San Francisco Suicide Prevention and the Crisis Text Line. She is an advocate for non-carceral responses to mental health crises and believes that building more peer support collectives will bring us closer to a world without suicide.
A frequent competitor in vocal contests, Francesca was most recently awarded 2nd place in the 2016 Schubert Club Competition (Division 1 Voice). She placed 1st place in both the local Bay Area and regional Cal-Western NATS competitions in 2015. She swept the the 2014 San Francisco/Bay Area NATS Competition, winning 1st place in all three divisions for which she was eligible (Aria, Art Song, and Musical Theater) as well as the Katherine Harvey Prize. Other first place honors include the Classical Singer High School Regional Competition, the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Minnesota Auditions, and the Thursday Musical Young Artist Competition (High School Voice). As the winner of the Dakota Valley Symphony Rising Star Concerto/Aria Competition in 2012, Francesca performed in concert with the Dakota Valley Symphony, singing "The hours creep on apace" from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.
Francesca is pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in psychology with a minor in music at Stanford University. Away from music, theatre, and academics, she enjoys persuing fashion blogs, baking all types of sweet treats from cronuts to crème brûlée, and randomly quoting The Lord of the Rings.