Ariana Ferch is a Czech-American artist whose first love was the sacred beauty of song. She was born in the Pacific Northwest and raised in a family of singers and artists who taught her to care for the dynamic interplay of voice, acting, and dance. From an early age she not only found harmony in the music that flowed through her house but was often caught listening to the sounds of nature near her home: the hum of the Spokane River and the western bluebird’s song.
Her mother’s love of Shakespeare taught Ariana the lasting power of words and as a child Ari recited the monologues of the classic characters Titania and Ariel with her two sisters. She found a hunger for movement and dance which brought her to pursue the elegance and perfection of ballet. She was drawn to the timeless ballets Romeo and Juliet, Manon, and Giselle with dancers Svetlana Zakharova, Francesca Hayward, and Marianela Núñez as her sources of inspiration. Ari further developed her passion for music through the melodies of Aretha Franklin, Steve Perry, Ella Fitzgerald, Bono, Grace Potter, and Eva Cassidy, which her father sang to her and her sisters.
The desire for artistry and expression led Ariana to devote herself to music and dance where she studied at Ballet Arts Academy and with faculty at Gonzaga University and the University of Montana. She went on to teach voice, acting, and dance at Hesperus Performing Arts before auditioning for the music program at Oklahoma City University, where she is currently earning her Bachelor's in Music and will graduate as a double major in Music Theatre and Vocal Performance. She plans to move to New York to be with her older sister and continue to create meaningful reflections of life through music and art.
In 2019, she made her professional debut in Beauty and the Beast at Coeur D'Alene Summer Theatre. She went on to perform as Beth in Little Women and Ali in Mamma Mia at Coeur D'Alene Summer Theatre and performed at the Wonder Festival in the Grand Tetons for the EcoTheo Collective. While at OCU, she has performed in Children of Eden, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Bright Star, Apollo & Hyacinthus, and has been a finalist in the 2022 Texoma NATS competitions for both Music Theatre and Opera. She will finish her time at OCU in the spring of 2024 performing the role of Anna Reich in Otto Nicolai’s Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor.
Beyond performance, Ariana is devoted to classic literature, contemporary poetry and film, and finds nature everywhere she goes. Her current favorite book is Anna Karenina and her all time favorites are Jane Eyre, Crime and Punishment, East of Eden, and Till We Have Faces. She is in constant search for the perfect cup of earl grey tea and loves to go on adventures with her sisters whenever they are together.