Puerto Rican opera singer Larisa Martínez is praised and sought after for her “smoky soprano” (Opera News), gracing top stages including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and Hollywood Bowl.
This season, Martínez performs as soloist with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marcelo Lehninger, singing Villa-Lobos’ Floresta do Amazonas. She will tour her “Voice and the Violin” program with violinist Joshua Bell across the U.S., including Kansas City’s Harriman-Jewell Series, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s recital series, Las Vegas’ Smith Center, and with Pacific Symphony conducted by Carl St.Clair. The program explores repertoire ranging from classical art songs and opera to beloved musical theater tunes, to selections by Latin American composers. Martínez will also premiere a new work written for her and Joshua Bell by Pulitzer Prize- and Academy Award-winning composer John Corigliano at the Tucson Desert Song Festival.
Past highlights for Martínez include orchestra appearances with The Philadelphia Orchestra at SPAC, Chicago Symphony at Ravinia Festival, New Jersey Symphony with Xian Zhang, Colorado Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and Hawaii Symphony. In 2019, she made her Kennedy Center debut in recital and her Carnegie Hall debut in Stern Auditorium, and sang Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Athens Philharmonic under the baton of Yiannis Hadjiloizou. In 2023, she made her Verbier Festival debut and was invited to perform at the opening ceremony for the new Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York. In 2024, she made her Korea debut, performing for 15,000 fans at Seoul’s KSPO Dome.
Martínez has toured for several years with tenor Andrea Bocelli, performing for packed houses throughout North America, South America and Europe. Also with Bocelli, she made her Madison Square Garden and Hollywood Bowl debuts and recently appeared at the Viña del Mar festival in Chile, where she sang for an estimated 250 million fans worldwide and immediately went viral for her captivating performance.
Martínez was invited as part of President Barack Obama’s artistic delegation to Cuba in 2016—an effort to expand cultural collaboration and friendships between the two countries. The mission culminated in the Emmy-nominated PBS special Live from Lincoln Center: Seasons of Cuba, in which Martínez was showcased.
Martínez’s operatic roles include Violetta in La traviata, conducted by Eugene Kohn (Wichita Grand Opera), Sophie in Werther alongside tenor Piotr Beczała (Culturarte), and Maria in West Side Story with tenor Michael Fabiano (Festival Napa Valley). She originated the role of Isaura in the 2016 world premiere of Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini in Italy, conducted by Fabio Luisi and directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi. That same year, Martínez won the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Puerto Rico, as well as the Angel Ramos Foundation Award and the Audience Prize. Soon after, she was invited by the Metropolitan Opera Guild as a guest artist honoring Anna Netrebko at their 2018 gala.
In 2018, EastWest Sounds Studios sampled Martínez’s voice for its virtual instrument software, “Voices of Opera,” which is used by composers and engineers worldwide. An advocate for accessible music education, Martínez is a board member of Silkroad (founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma) and a proud artistic resident of Turnaround Arts, led by the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities with a mission to transform schools in need through the arts.
Martínez studied vocal performance at the Music Conservatory in San Juan and simultaneously earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences with high honors from the University of Puerto Rico. She went on to receive a master’s degree from Mannes School of Music in New York City. Martínez is passionate about representing her Boricua cultural heritage through her many projects and performances.
Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez