Bayo, María

María Bayo Jiménez (1961, Fitero) studied singing at the Pablo Sarasate Conservatory in Pamplona, moving to Germany, in 1985, to pursue her studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. International recognition came in 1988, when she won first prize at the International Hans Gabor Belvedère Competition in Vienna.

She has been invited to perform by some of the world's leading opera houses - including La Scala in Milan; Staatsoper in Berlin; Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; Metropolitan Opera House in New York; Festivals in Salzburg and the San Sebastian Classical Music Fortnight - to play a wide range of characters in operas by composers as diverse as Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini, Cavalli, Offenbach, Debussy, Bizet, Gounod and, in particular, Mozart - Susanna, Cherubino and Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro; Ilia in Idomeneo; Zerlina and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Despina and Fiordiligi in Così fan Tutte.

María Bayo has worked with great conductors such as Wernicke, Pizzi, Ronconi, Lavelli, Miller, Del Monaco, Carsen, Lepage, Grüber, Sagi, Pasqual, Espert, Gas, Joel, Neuenfels, Hytner and Toffolutti.

Nevertheless, she has turned her attention to a lideristico and oratory repertoire at recitals and concerts all over the world.

She has sung and recorded, with Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo and Teresa Berganza, much of the Spanish repertoire, and is today one of its leading ambassadors.

María Bayo Jiménez has won Príncipe de Viana Award (2002), National Music Award (2009), and Eusko Ikaskuntza-Caja Laboral Award for Humanities, Culture, Arts and Social Sciences (2011).

http://www.mariabayo.net/