Maria Brea
Maria Brea, soprano, is one of Venezuela’s most acclaimed opera singers. Praised for being a “very classy Venezuelan soprano” by The Arts Desk, “versatile soprano” by Tampa Bay and “luxurious soprano” by Opera Wire. Maria has performed throughout the world, from Cardiff to Paris, stunning her audiences with her exciting renditions, sparkling clarity and dazzling range.
Ms. Brea starts her 2023-2024 season reprising one of her most performed roles, Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen at the Hogfish Festival in Maine with a star rising cast. In the fall of 2023, she will be preforming the role of Clomiri in Handel’s adaptation of Imeneo with Opera Essentia in New York City with a baroque specialized 415 ensemble. She returns to the University of Notre Dame to sing a recital accompanied by Israeli pianist Dror Baitel. In December 2023, Maria makes her awaited debut with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra singing Handel’s Messiah, an adaptation in Spanish under the baton of Maestro Tito Muñoz. In January 2024, she’ll be heard with Vero Beach Opera in her return to the role of Donna Anna with a stellar cast. Maria makes her Canadian debut here with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.
In the 2022-23 season Ms. Brea represented Venezuela in the prestigious Operalia. She also had appearances with the Hogfish Music Festival, the American Spirtual Ensemble, Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and with Boston Philharmonic with the legendary conductor Benjamin Zander. Maria made her Schubert Club’s debut in Saint Paul, Minnesota along with the Jasper Quartet in a premiere of award winning Venezuelan composer Reinaldo Moya.
Brea’s father, a music teacher and Cuatro player, taught her Venezuelan folk music from an early age. Maria holds a Bachelor Degree in Music with The Manhattan School of Music and a Masters Degree in Music at the World Renowned Juilliard School.
Odaline de la Martínez
Born in Cuba and brought up in the USA, Odaline de la Martínez is now based in the UK where she has become a formidable force on today’s classical music scene, pursuing a busy career as an award-winning composer, conductor, record producer and event curator. Working with everything from Mozart symphonies to the latest contemporary music, she has acquired an illustrious reputation for her versatile and eclectic vision, with a long-standing commitment to contemporary music, women composers and Latin American composers in particular. Amongst her many achievements, Martínez was the first woman to conduct a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984.
Martínez enjoys a demanding schedule as guest conductor with leading orchestras worldwide and throughout Great Britain, including all the BBC orchestras. In addition to frequent broadcasts for BBC TV and radio, she has recorded over 40 CDs founded her own ensemble, Lontano, in 1976, with whom she has also performed and broadcast all over the world.
Martínez studied Composition at the University of Surrey, Tulane University and the Royal Academy of Music. Published by Composers Edition, her works have since been showcased across some of the world’s most elite classical music venues, including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre and St. John’s Smith Square, amongst many others. Her output traverses a wide range of formats, from intimate solo, chamber and electronic works, to large-scale choral, operatic, and orchestral pieces.
Known also for her exciting productions of unique and imaginative events, Martínez runs the biennial London Festival of American Music (now in its 8th year) and has curated bespoke programmes for major venues and festivals such as Southbank Centre and Cardiff Festival; most recently co-curating Juilliard’s FOCUS Festival of Trailblazer Women Composers. Regarded as a distinguished pedagogue, Martínez’ many artistic and educational residencies include a permanent post at King’s College, London, alongside dedicated outreach work as a Trustee of the Mornington Trust.
In 2018, the Royal Academy of Arts recognised her as one of the UK’s most pioneering-ever female musicians, as part of their itinerant photographic art exhibition, First 100 Women.
Alexandre Regnault
Alexandre Regnault was born in Paris in 1981 to Venezuelan parents. He received his first musical training from his mother, the mezzo-soprano Arelys Regnault, and went on to perfect his studies in France, Spain, and Venezuela. He had the privilege of being under the direct tutelage of several masters, including the French conductor Antoine Duhamel, Ivor Osorio, Pedro Blanco, and the great pianist Estrella Sandoval. In 2009, he premiered his first opera, L’Histoire de la Peur, with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Alfredo Rugeles, the Polyphonic Choir of Venezuela, and soprano Mariana Ortiz.
Most of his work remains unpublished. His portfolio as a composer specializes in the creation of Symphonic Portraits, a series of symphonic aphorisms and lyrical allegories created to measure for works of art from the 7th century BC to the present day. His works include Five Mystical Adagios, two symphonies, a concerto for classical guitar and orchestra, and five symphonic suites for choir and orchestra. He is currently working on a revised edition of L’Histoire de la Peur created especially for Maria Brea.