Ana María Martínez
Encyclopedia
Ana María Martínez is a Grammy award–winning opera
tic soprano
from Puerto Rico
. "The most beautiful voice of Latin America", (BZ Berlin) [Martínez] "requires ranking among the top lyric sopranos of the day...[with] immaculate musicality underpinning every utterance." (Opera Magazine)
, the daughter of Puerto Rican opera singer Evangelína Colón and Dr. Ángel Martínez, a Cuban psychoanalyst. Martínez can trace her grandparents back to Spain and France before coming to the Caribbean Islands. Martínez grew up with discipline and experienced a strict Catholic upbringing.
An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Ms. Martiez has appeared in numerous productions with the Opera house, including her performance as Lucero in the World Premier of Daniel Catán’s Salsipuedes, Mimi in La Boheme, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, La Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Liù in Turandot. At the San Francisco Opera she has performed as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Micaëla in Carmen, and Pamina in the Die Zauberflöte. In addition, she has had leading roles with the Netherlands Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Dresden Semper Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Seattle Opera, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper der Stadt Bonn, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Seattle Opera.
Ms. Martinez continually inspires audiences from the concert stage, with notable appearances including world tours with Andrea Bocelli and Plácido Domingo, as well as performances with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall, and the Puerto Rico Symphony at the Kennedy Center. Festival appearances include performances at the Ravinia Festival, Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy, Salzburg Festival, Florence Maggio Musicale Festival, and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. She has worked with such distinguished conductors as Plácido Domingo, Sylvan Cambreling, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, and Giuseppe Sinopoli, among others.
Her solo recording, simply titled Ana María Martínez – Soprano Songs and Arias, recorded with the Prague Philharmonia conducted by Steven Mercurio on Naxos, was released to critical acclaim and selected by Gramophone Magazine as an “Editor’s Choice.” She stars on the Decca DVD Cosi Fan Tutte filmed at the Salzburg Festival and performs the role of Nedda opposite Andrea Bocelli in the Universal CD recording of I Pagliacci which debuted at #1. She can also be seen on the EuroArts DVD Spanish Night recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Plácido Domingo.
Her discography also includes a performance on Steven Mercurio’s Sony Classical CD, Many Voices, and the Latin Grammy award-winning recording of Albeniz's Merlin with Plácido Domingo (Decca), which coincided with the Grammy nominated recording of Bacalov's Misa Tango with Plácido Domingo (Deutsche Grammophon). Additional recordings include Glass' La Belle et la Bête and Symphony No. 5 (Nonesuch), Albeniz's Henry Clifford (Decca), Joaquin Rodrigo’s Obra Vocal I, II, IV & V (EMI), and Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas (Albany). Recorded on Naxos for the Milken Archives and with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, she can be heard on Castelnuovo Tedesco’s Naomi & Ruth Opus 27 (Naxos) as well as Yizkor's Requiem (Naxos) and with the Barcelona Symphony, Marvin Levy’s Canto de los Marranos (Naxos), Julius Chajes’ Old Jerusalem (Naxos) and Hugo Weisgall's Psalm of the Distant Dove (Naxos). Her rendition of "Ave Maria" is heard in the Denzel Washington film “John Q” and she has been featured on the Emmy nominated PBS TV special and DVD "American Dream: Andrea Bocelli’s Statue of Liberty Concert" with the New Jersey Symphony and she joins Plácido Domingo for a DVD of Zarzuelas entitled Amor, Vida de Mi Vida, which was recorded live with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg.
A graduate of the Juilliard School with Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Martinez won the Pepita Embil Award at the 1995 Operalia II, first prize in the 1994 Eleanor McCollum Auditions and Awards from Houston Grand Opera, and in the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions she was a first place district and first place regional winner and national finalist.
Chad Shelton
, while working at Houston Grand Opera and the two have often sung together on the HGO stage. They have one son together, born in 2007.
Martínez won a Latin Grammy in 2001 for Classical Album
for Isaac Albéniz
's Merlin
with Carlos Álvarez
, Plácido Domingo
, Jane Henschel
and conductor
José De Eusebio
with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. "The most beautiful voice of Latin America", (BZ Berlin) [Martínez] "requires ranking among the top lyric sopranos of the day...[with] immaculate musicality underpinning every utterance." (Opera Magazine)
Early life
Ana María Martínez was born in San Juan, Puerto RicoSan Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, the daughter of Puerto Rican opera singer Evangelína Colón and Dr. Ángel Martínez, a Cuban psychoanalyst. Martínez can trace her grandparents back to Spain and France before coming to the Caribbean Islands. Martínez grew up with discipline and experienced a strict Catholic upbringing.
Career
Highlights of Ms. Martinez’s illustrious career include her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Micaëla in Carmen for which Marion Lignana Rosenberg of Newsday said: “A lovely singer, Martínez is something more rare and wonderful besides: a beautiful musician. She shades her smoky, soft-grained voice with finesse, phrasing with unfussy grace and serving up some of the most ravishing soft singing heard at the Met in years. ” For her debut in the title role of Rusalka at the Glyndebourne Festival she was praised for her "brave back-flips before singing a radiant ‘Song to the Moon’. Her dusky lyric soprano rides the great closing scene to heartbreaking effect." (Sunday Telegraph) Ms. Martinez’s debut performance with the Opera de Bastille was as Amelia in a new production of Simon Boccanegra, and she returned there to sing the title role in a new production of Verdi's Luisa Miller. Performances at the Royal Opera House Convent Garden include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich the title role of Luisa Miller and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro.An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Ms. Martiez has appeared in numerous productions with the Opera house, including her performance as Lucero in the World Premier of Daniel Catán’s Salsipuedes, Mimi in La Boheme, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, La Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Liù in Turandot. At the San Francisco Opera she has performed as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Micaëla in Carmen, and Pamina in the Die Zauberflöte. In addition, she has had leading roles with the Netherlands Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Dresden Semper Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Seattle Opera, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper der Stadt Bonn, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Seattle Opera.
Ms. Martinez continually inspires audiences from the concert stage, with notable appearances including world tours with Andrea Bocelli and Plácido Domingo, as well as performances with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall, and the Puerto Rico Symphony at the Kennedy Center. Festival appearances include performances at the Ravinia Festival, Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy, Salzburg Festival, Florence Maggio Musicale Festival, and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. She has worked with such distinguished conductors as Plácido Domingo, Sylvan Cambreling, Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, and Giuseppe Sinopoli, among others.
Her solo recording, simply titled Ana María Martínez – Soprano Songs and Arias, recorded with the Prague Philharmonia conducted by Steven Mercurio on Naxos, was released to critical acclaim and selected by Gramophone Magazine as an “Editor’s Choice.” She stars on the Decca DVD Cosi Fan Tutte filmed at the Salzburg Festival and performs the role of Nedda opposite Andrea Bocelli in the Universal CD recording of I Pagliacci which debuted at #1. She can also be seen on the EuroArts DVD Spanish Night recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Plácido Domingo.
Her discography also includes a performance on Steven Mercurio’s Sony Classical CD, Many Voices, and the Latin Grammy award-winning recording of Albeniz's Merlin with Plácido Domingo (Decca), which coincided with the Grammy nominated recording of Bacalov's Misa Tango with Plácido Domingo (Deutsche Grammophon). Additional recordings include Glass' La Belle et la Bête and Symphony No. 5 (Nonesuch), Albeniz's Henry Clifford (Decca), Joaquin Rodrigo’s Obra Vocal I, II, IV & V (EMI), and Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas (Albany). Recorded on Naxos for the Milken Archives and with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, she can be heard on Castelnuovo Tedesco’s Naomi & Ruth Opus 27 (Naxos) as well as Yizkor's Requiem (Naxos) and with the Barcelona Symphony, Marvin Levy’s Canto de los Marranos (Naxos), Julius Chajes’ Old Jerusalem (Naxos) and Hugo Weisgall's Psalm of the Distant Dove (Naxos). Her rendition of "Ave Maria" is heard in the Denzel Washington film “John Q” and she has been featured on the Emmy nominated PBS TV special and DVD "American Dream: Andrea Bocelli’s Statue of Liberty Concert" with the New Jersey Symphony and she joins Plácido Domingo for a DVD of Zarzuelas entitled Amor, Vida de Mi Vida, which was recorded live with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg.
A graduate of the Juilliard School with Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Martinez won the Pepita Embil Award at the 1995 Operalia II, first prize in the 1994 Eleanor McCollum Auditions and Awards from Houston Grand Opera, and in the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions she was a first place district and first place regional winner and national finalist.
Personal life
Martínez met her husband, tenorTenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Chad Shelton
Chad Shelton
Chad Shelton is an American operatic tenor. Particularly associated with the acclaimed Houston Grand Opera , Shelton has excelled in performances of contemporary American operas and in the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi...
, while working at Houston Grand Opera and the two have often sung together on the HGO stage. They have one son together, born in 2007.
Awards
Martínez has won prizes including the Pepita Embil Award, the Plácido Domingo International Voice Competition, and first prize at the Eleanor McCollum Awards.Martínez won a Latin Grammy in 2001 for Classical Album
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
for Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
's Merlin
Merlin (opera)
Merlin is the last of the operas of Isaac Albéniz. It is in three acts and the libretto was written in English by Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer ....
with Carlos Álvarez
Carlos Álvarez (baritone)
Carlos Álvarez is a Spanish baritone who has had a major international opera career since the early 1990s. His recording of the title role in Isaac Albéniz's Merlin with Plácido Domingo as King Arthur won a Latin Grammy Award in 2001, and his recording of the role of Ford in Giuseppe Verdi's...
, Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
, Jane Henschel
Jane Henschel
Jane Henschel is an American operatic soprano. Henschel, who was born in Wisconsin, studied at the University of Southern California, and then pursued further studies in Germany, where she has made her home...
and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
José De Eusebio
José De Eusebio
José De Eusebio is a Spanish conductor and musicologist. He is particularly known for his work on the neglected operas of the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz....
with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid.
Discography
- Soprano Songs and Arias: Ana María Martínez, NaxosNaxos RecordsNaxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
, 2005 - Dvorak: Rusalka, Glyndebourne, 2010
- Amor, Vida de mi Vida, (DVD) Euroarts, 2009
- American Classics – Beveridge/Marriner for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, Naxos, 2005
- Weisgall: T’Kiatot Rituals for Rosh Hashana, Naxos, 2004
- Levy: Masada (Canto de Los Marranos) for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, Naxos, 2004
- Introducing the World of American Jewish Music for the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, Naxos, 2003
- Castelnuovo – Tedesco: Naomi & Ruth, Naxos, 2003
- Spanish Night from the Berlin Waldbühne, (DVD) Naxos, 2003
- Rodrigo: 100 Años – La Obra Vocal, I y II, EMIEMIThe EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, 2002 - Rodrigo: 100 Años – La Obra Vocal, IV y V, EMI, 2002
- Albéniz: Henry Clifford, DeccaDecca RecordsDecca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, 2003 - Albéniz: Merlin, Decca, 2000
- Catan: Florencia en el Amazonas, AlbanyAlbany RecordsAlbany Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987, and is based in Albany, New York.-External links:**...
, 2003 - Glass: Philip on Film, (Box Set) NonesuchNonesuchThe word nonesuch means something with nothing like it; an unrivalled thing; a paragon. Nonesuch can also refer to the following:*Nonesuch Press*Nonesuch Records*Nonesuch River*Nonesuch River Golf Course...
, 2001 - Glass: Symphony No. 5, Nonesuch, 2000
- Glass: La Belle et la Bête, Nonesuch, 1995
- Bacalov: Misa Tango, Deutsche GrammophonDeutsche GrammophonDeutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
, 2000 - Sheng: The Song of Majnun – A Persian Romeo and Juliet, DelosDelosThe island of Delos , isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece...
, 1997 - American Dream: Andrea Bocelli's Statue of Liberty Concert, (TV/DVD) WNET/THIRTEEN, 2000
- Mozart: Così fan tutte, (DVD) Decca, 2007
- Leoncavallo: Pagliacci, Decca, 2007
- Mercurio: Many Voices, SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, 2006 - Andrea Bocelli | Concerto: One Night in Central Park (TV/ DVD / CD) WNET / THIRTEEN, 2011