Monica Yunus

Career Overview

Monica Yunus is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Sing for Hope, a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 that mobilizes professional artists to bring their work into schools, hospitals, and communities in need. The organization presents creative projects such as the Sing for Hope Pianos that make the arts available to all. Yunus has been honored with a 21st Century Leaders Award and was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Born in Chittagong, Bangladesh and raised in New Jersey, Yunus earned both her Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music degrees from The Juilliard School. After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, Monica organized fundraising concerts with her close friend from Juilliard, fellow soprano Camille Zamora, and their colleagues from The Metropolitan Opera to raise money and awareness, which led to the establishment of Sing for Hope.

Opera Career

Yunus has performed with the world's leading opera companies, including Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera, where she spent ten seasons as a principal artist. She has performed on world stages across the globe in concert and operatic appearances in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. With an impressive background as a soprano, Monica has held principal artist roles at Opera Colorado, Opera Memphis, Zouk Mikael International Festival, and has served as an Artist In Residence at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and Florida State University.

Current Roles & Advocacy

Yunus is an Artist Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University and has been the Housewright Eminent Artist-Scholar in Residence at Florida State University and the inaugural Reflexions Artist in Residence at University of Arkansas. As a passionate advocate for the arts and their role in fostering interconnectivity and empathy, Monica has curated global summits on arts and healing and advocated for COVID relief legislation specific to the arts sector as part of Americans for the Arts' legislative subcommittee. She has performed and spoken at Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship, The World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Aspen Ideas Festival, and The United Nations.

What Monica Yunus could bring to her role at Sing for Hope: Drawing on two decades of international operatic performance experience, strategic nonprofit leadership, and recognized expertise in arts-based social change, Yunus brings both credibility and access to world-class artists and cultural institutions. Her standing as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and her advocacy work at the UN and Fortune summits position her uniquely to elevate Sing for Hope's profile and expand partnerships with major cultural organizations, while her deep commitment to arts accessibility ensures programming remains centered on community impact.