Olivia Cosío is an educator, vocalist, and co-founder of Sounds that Carry: Creative Impact Consultants, a firm that partners with arts & culture organizations to design impactful community programs that connect more deeply with audiences. She also serves on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she teaches courses in teaching artistry and music education.

Her innovative work at the intersection of arts, education, and community well-being has been featured by The Wallace Foundation Podcast, Psychology Today, and Opera Canada, and she’s spoken about creative placemaking at Berklee’s Career Jam, Juilliard’s Entrepreneurship Symposium, and the Chamber Music America National Conference.

In addition to her passion for the arts, she has spent over a decade consulting in higher education admissions, helping students worldwide and taking special pleasure in guiding high schoolers as they prepare for the transition to college.

Previously, she served as Harvard University’s Director of First-Year Initiatives through the Dean of Students Office, leading campus-wide programming and contributing to the Harvard Art Museums’ inaugural Family Day.

A Juilliard-trained operatic mezzo-soprano praised by The Wall Street Journal as “a standout,” Olivia performed internationally at Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, Versailles’s Opéra Royal, London’s Holland Park, and Salzburg’s Großes Festspielhaus before turning her focus fully to education. Olivia maintains an active teaching artist practice, most notably as a Director/Playwright with San Francisco Opera’s Voices for Social Justice program.

She holds a Master of Education in Education Leadership, Organizations, and Leadership with a concentration in Arts and Learning from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor’s from Oberlin College & Conservatory. Proudly from San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, Olivia draws on her upbringing as she builds arts education opportunities that are joyful, rigorous, and transformative.

In her spare time, you might find her baking (gluten-free) pastries, trying a new board game, or collecting objects that kids can make noise with. She lives with her husband and dog in San Francisco.