Ailyn Pérez

Hailed by the New York Times as “a beautiful woman who commands the stage” and “a major soprano,” Ailyn Pérez is increasingly in demand at the world’s leading opera houses and cultural capitals.

Ailyn Pérez has received several honours including the 2012 Richard Tucker Award (thereby becoming the only Hispanic recipient in the award’s 35-year history), the 15th annual Plácido Domingo Award, the 2016 Beverly Sills Award from The Metropolitan Opera, the 2017 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Distinguished Alumni Award. As Opera News observes, “The phrase ‘an embarrassment of riches’ might have been invented to describe the combination of talents that belong to Ailyn Pérez … who truly seems to have it all.”

Ailyn begins the 2016-17 season with a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Mimi (La bohème), before performing Violetta (La Traviata) at Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. She will also give recitals in Chicago, at the Three Palaces Festival in Malta, Wolf Trap Foundation USA, and will return to Teatro alla Scala as Violetta and as Mimi. Further ahead, Ailyn will return to the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Houston Grand Opera and Metropolitan Opera, and will make her house debut at Netherlands Opera and role debut as Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte).

Ailyn Pérez is a graduate of Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts and Indiana University. Her many accolades include the George London Foundation’s Leonie Rysanek Award, Shoshana Foundation Career Grant (2007), 2nd place in the 2006 Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition, and honors from the Loren L. Zachary Foundation, Opera Index, and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. Ailyn is also a member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild Artist’s Council and the Advisory Board for Time In Kids, an acclaimed arts education and outreach initiative based in New York City.

She recently joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra for a concert series featuring Rachmaninov’s Vocalise and the ‘Letter Scene’ from Eugene Onegin; and created the role of Tatyana Bakst in the World Premiere of Jake Heggie’s Great Scott at Dallas Opera, before returning to Dallas as the title role in Manon. She had return engagements at Houston Grand Opera as the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), The Met as Musetta (La bohème), and starred as Juliette in a new production of Romeo et Juliette for Santa Fe Opera.

Ailyn made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Spring 2015 as Michaela (Carmen). Additional highlights have included her Houston Grand Opera debut as Desdemona (Otello); Mimi (La boheme) at the Teatro alla Scala and at the Hamburgische Staatsoper; Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at the Vienna State Opera and Washington National Opera; Violetta for Covent Garden, Ópera de Oviedo, the Bayerische Staatsoper and in a new production for Hamburg State Opera; Violetta and Manon on a Japanese tour with the Royal Opera House; her house debuts at the Bolshoi – as Mimì (La bohème) – and at Glyndebourne, as Falstaff’s Alice Ford; Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Marguerite (Faust) for Hamburg State Opera; Suzel (L’amico Fritz) in Moscow; Mimì in Zurich and Los Angeles.