Award winning Spanish soprano Lorena Paz Nieto is an alumna of the National Opera Studio, a previous winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform and the Ludmilla Andrews Russian Song Prize, and winner of ‘Vocalist of the year’ at the 2019 LUKAS awards.

 

Lorena’s operatic roles include Maria in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires at Theater Lübeck, Morgana in Handel's Alcina, Drusilla, Fortuna and Pallade in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Amore in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria for the Grange Festival, Marie in Donizetti’s La fille du Regiment, Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Musetta in La Bohème, Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Diane in Offenbach’s Orpheè aus Enfers, Pannochka in Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, Cis in Britten’s Albert Herring, and Gloria in the UK premier of Durán’s O Arame.

 

Notable recital performances have included recitals in the Crush Room at the Royal Opera House, as well as appearances at the Oxford Lieder Festival, Heidelberger Frühling Festival, London Song Festival, St John's Smith Square, Aberdeen International Youth Festival, the Llandeilo Festival of Music, and the Two Moors Festival. Recently, Lorena gave two recitals and a Masterclass on Spanish repertoire in Japan. Lorena was a Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Scholar, featuring as a soloist for the Academy’s popular cantata series and was part of their prestigious Song Circle. Recent oratorio repertoire includes Handel's Messiah, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Vivaldi's Gloria, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Tippett's A child of our time, Orff's Carmina Burana, Elgar’s The Kingdom and Monteverdi’s Vespers at The Three Choirs Festival. 

 

Upcoming projects include a recital in the Linbury Studio Foyer at the Royal Opera House for their Live at Lunch series, a staged recital at the London Song Festival, a recital at the Barber Institute for Oxford Lieder and a role debut as Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

 

Lorena trained on the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music in London under the tutelage of Philip Doghan and Audrey Hyland, achieving distinction in her Masters and a DipRAM for an outstanding final recital. Before this, she received a BMus (First Class Hons.) from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied with Kate Patterson and Lada Valešovà.