Maria VALDES

American soprano Maria Valdes has been praised by the New York Times as a “first-rate singing actress.” She is lauded for her interpretations of Mozart and the leading heroines of the operatic canon, and has made her mark on the classics of symphonic repertoire and new works. In 2025-2026, she returns to Symphony San Jose for Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Spanish River Concerts for “Broadway to Opera”, and The Metropolitan Opera to cover Frida Image #1 in El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego. Also this season, Valdes will sing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Valdosta Symphony and the Bellingham Festival of Music, marking her sixth performance of the work amongst companies including the Greensboro Symphony, Symphony San Jose and the California Symphony. In the spring, she makes her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Terre Johnson’s Te Deum with MidAmerica Productions. Next season, Ms. Valdes returns to the Hawaii Opera Theater to sing Wendy Torrance in The Shining, joins Omaha Symphony Choral Collaborative as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana, and sings the role of Violetta in La traviata with Charlottesville Opera.

In 2024–2025, Ms. Valdes made her debut with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and her role and company debut with Opera Wilmington as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. She gave a recital tour in San Francisco and Hawaii with OperAloha, and returned to the Atlanta Master Chorale for Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass and Berkshire Lyric in Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten. A frequent artist with Hawaii Opera Theatre, she made her STUDIO101 debut in I’ll Be Seeing You, reprised Micaëla in Carmen, and sang Hana Hooper Ha’alilio and Himiko Hamilton in workshops of The Sheltering Tree and Tea.

Ms. Valdes joined the Metropolitan Opera roster covering Papagena in The Magic Flute in 2023. Other recent operatic roles have included Léontine in The Anonymous Lover, Younger Alyce in Glory Denied, Lucy cover in The Threepenny Opera, Cristina Kahlo in Frida, and Doris Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird (Atlanta Opera), Younger Alyce in Glory Denied (Atlanta Opera, Berkshire Opera Festival), Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Micaëla in Peter Brook’s La tragédie de Carmen (Hawaii Opera Theatre), and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music (Charlottesville Opera, The Ellen Theater in Bozeman, Houston Grand Opera cover). Favorites are Violetta in La traviata (Gulfshore Opera), Juliette cover in Roméo et Juliette (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Despina in Così fan tutte (Rochester Philharmonic, Opera San José), Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice (West Edge Opera), Diana in the Mariachi opera, Cruzar la cara de la luna (New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera), Gilda in Rigoletto (Berkshire Opera Festival, San Francisco Opera), and Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Opera Theatre of St. Louis).

Among Ms. Valdes’ broad repertory of concert works is Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate, Laudate Dominum, Coronation Mass, and Requiem; Haydn’s Creation; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; Strauss’ Four Last Songs; Mahler’s Symphony No. 4; Brahms’ Ein deutsches requiem; Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, and Orff’s Carmina Burana; with companies including St. Augustine Music Festival, Greensboro Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Chattanooga Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Atlanta Master Chorale, Mobile Symphony, Berkshire Lyric, San Jose Symphony, Virginia Symphony, California Symphony, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and Georgia Symphony Orchestra. She has been a featured soloist in concert with Gulf Coast Symphony, the Bellingham Festival of Music, and Washington Concert Opera. In recital, Ms. Valdes has been featured with Il Cenacolo Italian Club, the Cathedral of St. Paul, the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, Berkshire Opera Festival, Madison Chamber Music Festival, and The Hamptons Festival of Music with renowned classical guitarist Pepe Romero. She has also performed with Martin Katz, and joined NYFOS for Compositora, a recital of female Latin American composers, with Steven Blier and Michael Barrett. With SongFest, she sang selections of Nordic, Spanish, and Latin American music with pianist Javier Arrebola.

Ms. Valdes is featured on recordings singing Mendelssohn’s “Hear My Prayer” on Evening Hymn (Gothic Records) and on Atlanta Opera’s Glory Denied. She has won third place in the region of the Laffont Competition and the top prize at the Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition, and is the recipient of a Shoshana Foundation Grant. Ms. Valdes was an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera and a young artist with the Merola Opera Program. She holds a BM in Vocal Performance from Georgia State University.