LORENA PAZ NIETO

Award-winning Spanish soprano Lorena Paz Nieto is a previous winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform award, the Ludmilla Andrews Russian Song Prize, and ‘Vocalist of the Year’ at the 2019 LUKAS awards.

Lorena’s recent operatic roles include Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro and Nannetta Falstaff (West Green House Opera and Opera Project), Lisette La Rondine (West Green House Opera and If Opera), Clorinda La Cenerentola (Nevill Holt Opera), Olga Fedora and Bottle/ Duchess Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (If Opera), Hero Beatrice and Benedict (Mid Wales Opera), Maria Maria de Buenos Aires (Theater Lübeck), Despina Così fan tutte, Musetta La Bohème, Marie La fille du Régiment, Berta and Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Ulster Touring Opera), Lauretta Gianni Schicchi, Morgana Alcina, Diane Orphée aux Enfers, Pannochka May Night, Drusilla, Fortuna and Pallade L’incoronazione di Poppea, Amore Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (The Grange Festival).

Notable recital performances have included recitals in the Crush Room and Linbury Foyer at the Royal Opera House, the Oxford Lieder Festival, Heidelberger Frühling Festival, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, London Song Festival, Sinfonia Smith Square, two recitals and a masterclass on Spanish song in Japan, and recently a tour of China visiting ten cities to give recitals, lectures, vocal masterclasses and adjudicating music competitions. 

Other recent concert highlights include Britten's orchestral song cycle Our hunting fathers at Sinfonia Smith Square, Handel's Messiah at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid with the Seville Baroque Orchestra, the world premiere of Richard Blackford’s Babel at Cadogan Hall, as well as 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.

Lorena recently released her first solo CD, Cantando a dos poetas, featuring contemporary songs written by Spanish composers which she has toured in Spain and Portugal. 

Upcoming engagements include a role debut as Norina in Don Pasquale for West Green House Opera, revisiting the role of Despina, a recital celebrating female Latin composers in the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, returning to the Oxford International Song Festival in the Autumn, and featuring on a new CD with guitarist Ahmed Dickinson with music by Maria Camahort, released in July.

Lorena is an alumna of the National Opera Studio, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.