About

Acclaimed by the New York Times as an artist who creates "theatrical magic," Grammy Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez has built one of the most wide-ranging careers in opera today — a singer equally celebrated for her portrayals of Puccini's heroines at the world's great houses as for her deep roots in the Latin American repertoire and her abiding commitment to the next generation of singers.

The 2026–27 season finds Ms. Martínez at the Metropolitan Opera as Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte, conducted by Nimrod David Pfeffer and broadcast worldwide as part of the Met's 20th anniversary Live in HD series. At Houston Grand Opera, she takes on a new role entirely — not on the stage but behind it — directing the company's bilingual Family Day production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, presented in both English and Spanish in an accessible, relaxed-environment staging designed to welcome young audiences and first-time operagoers to the art form. On the concert platform, the season is equally distinguished. She sings Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Aspen Symphony Orchestra, joins the Oakland Symphony and conductor Kedrick Armstrong at the Paramount Theatre for Jimmy López's Dreamers Oratorio — a work for chorus and orchestra — and sings Verdi's Requiem with the Grant Park Music Festival at Millennium Park in Chicago. In the recital hall, she appears with True Concord in Tucson in Unveiling, an intimate evening with Broadway Music Director and pianist Andy Einhorn tracing her journey from a childhood steeped in Cuban and Puerto Rican tradition, through her years at The Juilliard School, to the great stages of the world — a program woven in both English and Spanish that offers audiences a rare personal window into the artist behind the voice. She also appears in recital at Opera Las Vegas.

The 2025–26 season saw Ms. Martínez return to Lyric Opera of Chicago in two productions — her celebrated Despina in Così fan tutte and Catrina in the company premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank's El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego — as well as a recital with pianist Craig Terry at the Harris Theatre. The previous season found her longstanding relationship with Los Angeles Opera at its most varied, with appearances as Margarita Xirgu in the company premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar and Despina in Così fan tutte, both conducted by Music Director James Conlon. She also made her house debut at Pittsburgh Opera in the title role of Tosca, and joined the Aspen Music Festival for an extended residency encompassing Ravel's Shéhérazade with conductor Fabien Gabel, a recital with Andy Einhorn, and masterclasses with festival students.

At the heart of Ms. Martínez's career is a relationship with Houston Grand Opera of almost unparalleled depth and longevity. It was there in 1994 that she won First Prize in the Eleanor McCollum Auditions — and it was on the HGO stage that she first sang Carmen and Cio-Cio San, roles that have since carried her to the great opera houses of the world. The inaugural recipient of the Lynn Wyatt Great Artist Award, she has graced the company's stage across three glorious decades in roles including Rusalka, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nedda in Pagliacci, Mimì in La bohème, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, la Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, Liù in Turandot, Lucero in the world premiere of Daniel Catán's Salsipuedes, and both Rosalba and the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas — the last two recorded for commercial release. Often performing under the baton of Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers, Ms. Martínez's HGO appearances have been among the defining chapters of her career. In 2015, she gave back to the institution that shaped her by establishing the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award as part of the McCollum competition, awarded annually to a young singer of exceptional promise, to be used towards the furthering of their artistic training.

Ms. Martínez has been a treasured presence at Lyric Opera of Chicago across many seasons, in a relationship that has encompassed some of her finest portrayals — Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, Donna Elvira in Robert Falls' celebrated production of Don Giovanni, her role debut as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Mimì in La bohème, Nedda in Pagliacci, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Marguerite in Faust. Her appearances in concert with the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra at Millennium Park, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, have drawn audiences of thousands and confirmed her unique ability to hold a vast outdoor crowd as completely as she holds an intimate opera house. With Los Angeles Opera she has appeared as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Catrina in El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, Elisabetta in Don Carlo opposite Plácido Domingo and conducted by Music Director James Conlon, Carmen, Cio-Cio San, Mimì, Nedda in Franco Zeffirelli's iconic production of Pagliacci, and Violetta in La traviata — the last two conducted by Maestro Domingo himself. At San Francisco Opera she made her celebrated role debut as Elisabetta in Don Carlo conducted by Nicola Luisotti, and returned as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Micaëla in Carmen, Donna Elvira, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Micaëla in Carmen and returned to the house as Musetta in La bohème, Cio-Cio San, and Donna Elvira. At Washington National Opera she has appeared as Liù in Turandot and Cio-Cio San, and at Santa Fe Opera — where she has returned season after season — she made her debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and returned as Rosina in a new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Donna Elvira, Mimì, Cio-Cio San, and the title role in Carmen. Additional leading roles in the United States have taken her for multiple seasons to the stages of Opera de Puerto Rico, Dallas Opera, and Florida Grand Opera, among many others.

The breadth of Ms. Martínez's European career has been equally remarkable. Her critically acclaimed role and house debut as Rusalka at the Glyndebourne Festival was recorded live and released on the Glyndebourne label, and she returned to that most celebrated of summer festivals in the leading role of Paolina in the United Kingdom's first professionally staged performances of Donizetti's Poliuto, also recorded live and released on DVD. She made her debut at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as Rusalka, and her debut at the Opéra national de Paris as Amelia in a new production of Simon Boccanegra, returning subsequently as the title role in a new production of Luisa Miller, Mimì in La bohème, and for her role debut as Antonia in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper as Adina in L'elisir d'amore launched a rich association with that house, encompassing Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Micaëla in Carmen, Mimì, Liù in Turandot, and Cio-Cio San conducted by Plácido Domingo. At the Bayerische Staatsoper she has appeared as Cio-Cio San, the title role in Luisa Miller, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Mimì, the title role in Rusalka, and Antonia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden she made her debut as Alice Ford in Falstaff and returned as Violetta in La traviata, Cio-Cio San, and Donna Elvira. She also appeared as Liù in Turandot and Nedda in Pagliacci at De Nederlandse Opera, and brought La bohème to the Abu Dhabi Festival in the United Arab Emirates — the city's first fully staged opera production.

As a concert artist, Ms. Martínez commands a following that extends across continents. She made her debut at Teatro alla Scala with the Filarmonica della Scala under Gustavo Dudamel, appeared with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall conducted by Alan Gilbert in selections from West Side Story, and has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel. She has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink, the BBC Symphony at Barbican Hall, the Tchaikovsky Symphony in Moscow under Vladimir Fedoseyev, the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasiliera in Rio de Janeiro, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg in Verdi's Requiem, and the National Symphony of the Dominican Republic. She has appeared at the Ravinia Festival as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte conducted by James Conlon, at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy, and on many occasions at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. Closer to home, she has delighted audiences through solo concerts with the Puerto Rico Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, Mercury Baroque in Houston, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the English National Opera Orchestra in London. A gala concert alongside baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky with the Turkish Opera and Ballet Theatre, and an open-air televised gala with tenor Joseph Calleja at the Esterhazy Festival in Austria, have further demonstrated the extraordinary range of her concert career. She has also appeared with the Washington National Opera Orchestra in a gala concert with baritone Bryn Terfel, conducted by Plácido Domingo.

Equally celebrated as a recording artist, Ms. Martínez's discography is as varied as her career. Her solo disc, Ana María Martínez — Soprano Songs and Arias — of which she also served as Executive Producer — was recorded with the Prague Philharmonia and conducted by Steven Mercurio on Naxos, and was selected by Gramophone Magazine as an Editor's Choice. She stars on the soundtrack of Amazon's season three of Mozart in the Jungle (Sony Classical) — in which she also voiced the role of opera singer Alessandra — and appears on the DVD of Così fan tutte filmed at the Salzburg Festival (Decca), Steven Mercurio's Many Voices (Sony Classical), Philip Glass's La Belle et la Bête and Symphony No. 5 (Nonesuch), Albéniz's Henry Clifford (Decca), Joaquín Rodrigo's Obra Vocal I, II, IV & V (EMI), and Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas (Albany). Recorded for the Milken Archives with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, she appears on Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Naomi & Ruth, Opus 27 (Naxos), Yizkor's Requiem (Naxos), Marvin Levy's Canto de los Marranos with the Barcelona Symphony (Naxos), Julius Chajes' Old Jerusalem (Naxos), and Hugo Weisgall's Psalm of the Distant Dove (Naxos). Her rendition of Ave Maria appears on the Aaron Zigman soundtrack for the Denzel Washington film John Q, and her "Je veux vivre" from Roméo et Juliette can be heard in the film Factory Girl.

A celebrated and profoundly cherished artistic partnership with Plácido Domingo has been one of the great threads of Ms. Martínez's career. Their collaborations have taken them to The White House, HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro for the World Cup Celebration, the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, the Abu Dhabi Festival, the Arena di Verona, the Chorégies d'Orange, Teatro Real in Madrid, a special concert with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra in honor of Maestro Domingo's 50th anniversary, a gala with the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, and the inaugural performance at the Dubai Opera House, among many others. Their recordings together include the Zarzuela DVD Amor, Vida de Mi Vida recorded live at the Salzburg Festival (EuroArts), the Latin Grammy Award-winning recording of Albéniz's Merlin (Decca), the Grammy-nominated recording of Bacalov's Misa Tango (Deutsche Grammophon), and the DVD Spanish Night with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Maestro Domingo (EuroArts). Ms. Martínez has also toured internationally with tenor Andrea Bocelli, including her appearance on the Emmy-nominated PBS special and DVD American Dream: Andrea Bocelli's Statue of Liberty Concert with the New Jersey Symphony, and his celebrated concert in New York's Central Park, recorded live as Concerto: One Night in Central Park (Verve). She portrays Nedda opposite Mr. Bocelli in the recording of Pagliacci (Decca) and the title role in Manon Lescaut (Decca), recorded with Plácido Domingo conducting the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.

Ms. Martínez is a tenured Professor of Voice at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she shapes the next generation of singers with the same dedication she brings to the stage, and served for five years as Houston Grand Opera's first-ever Artistic Advisor. She has proudly represented her birthplace of Puerto Rico as an honoree and performer in the 62nd Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City, and is a contributing editor to Classical Singer Magazine. Her reflections on life and art were profiled in Latino Wisdom: Celebrity Stories of Hope, Inspiration, and Success to Recharge our Mind, Body, and Soul by Cathy Areu, published by Barricade Books. She is the winner of the 15th Annual Opera News Award, a recipient of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner's Hispanic Heritage Award in the Arts, and holds the National Association of Latina Leaders' Groundbreaking Latina in Music award. She was the inaugural winner of the Pepita Embil Prize of Zarzuela at the 1995 Operalia II, and in the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions was a first place district and regional winner and national finalist. Born in Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban father, Ana María spent her formative years in Puerto Rico and New York City. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School and is a proud alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

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