Multi-Focus Performance, Soprano

Soprano Maria Fortuna Dean has gained worldwide acclaim from audiences and critics alike, in repertoire ranging from the lyric soprano to the dramatic coloratura roles.

Recent engagements (under the name Maria Fortuna) have included Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte in Bordeaux, Catania, Seattle and Dallas; Violetta in La traviata in San Francisco and Wales, Lucia di Lammermoor in Honolulu and Austin; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in Catania; La Contessa di Folleville in Il viaggio a Reims in Prague and Philadelphia; Acis in Acis and Galatea in Spoleto, USA, Fiorilla in Il turco in Italia and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro in Long Beach, CA, Salud in in Dallas; Musetta in La boheme in San Francisco and Miami; Sandrina in La finta giardiniera in Washington DC; Diana in La Calisto and Vespina in L'infedelta delusa in Linz, Austria; Queen Isabella in Christophe Colomb in San Francisco; and Giulietta in Les Contes d'Hoffmann with New York City Opera.

Ms. Fortuna Dean has appeared in concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Oakland Symphony, the Sacramento Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony, Sinfonia San Francisco, the Maui Symphony, and made her Carnegie Hall debut in the Bruckner Te deum with Riccardo Muti. She was featured on the Live From Lincoln Center broadcast of The Rossini Bicentennial Gala with Marilyn Horne, conducted by Roger Norrington. She has also given recitals in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Tulsa.

Maria Fortuna Dean was born in Niagara Falls, NY. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and her Master of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music; she is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera, where she was also an Adler Fellow. In 1999-2000 she was Visiting Professor of Voice at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Visiting Lecturer in Opera Workshop at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. In 2000-2002 she was Visiting Lecturer in Voice at SUNY Fredonia. Upcoming engagements include the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, an evening of Mozart chamber music with Jeffrey Kahane of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and numerous recitals throughout Southern California.

mdean@calarts.edu