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Biography

Fernando is a young baritone born and raised in Mexico City. Besides his studies in voice, he is an accomplished pianist and has studied composition and music production. Fernando holds a bachelor’s degree in Digital Music Production Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores Monterrey in Mexico City and a masters degree in classical voice from the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Mark Oswald, Kenneth Merrill and Thomas Muraco. He was a young resident artist at the Opera Institute Boston University under the tutelage of Penelope Bitzas and William Lumpkin, studied at the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices (IYDV) with Dolora Zajick, Beatrice Benzi and John Treleaven, and was a member of the Classic Lyric Arts organization in New York directed by Glenn Morton. In Italy, he was a resident artist at the Accademia Verdiana at the Teatro Regio di Parma, studied at the Accademia D’Altro Canto with soprano Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi, privately with Vito Maria Brunetti, and is currently under the vocal guidance of bass Carlo Colombara and soprano Fiorenza Cedolins. In Mexico, he began studying voice at the CentrÓpera Enrique Jaso, was a member of the Vincerò Academy, the Mexico Opera Studio in Monterrey, and studied privately with vocal coach Andrés Sarre and baritone Carlos Almaguer.

 

During the 2023/2024 season he will make his debut at the Teatro Verdi di Trieste and at the Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine with Manon Lescaut (Lescaut), at the Teatro Verdi di Pisa and the Teatro Pergolesi di Jesi with La Rondine (Rambaldo), and at the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova with La Bohème (Schaunard). He recently sang with mezzosoprano Isabel Leonard in a concert organized by the Sociedad Artística del Tecnólogico de Monterrey. In 2022 he made his debut in Cavalleria Rusticana (Alfio) at the Teatro Comunale Fusco in Taranto under the baton of Giuseppe La Malfa, direction of Marialuisa Bafunno, and the Orchestra della Magna Grecia; in Spain with the Sociedad Filarmónica de Vilagarcía (SFV); in Mexico with the OSUANL in Monterrey in a gala concert under the baton of Teresa Rodríguez, and at the Teatro de la Ciudad with L’elisir d’amore (Belcore) and the Monterrey Summer Opera Academy.

 

In 2021 he made his debut at the 42nd La Versiliana Festival in conjunction with the 67th Festival Puccini Torre del Lago in their closing concert “Oh! Dolci Baci”, and his debut in the title role of Don Giovanni at the Teatro Riccardo Zandonai Rovereto under the musical guidance of maestri Giuseppe Sabbatini and Nicola Ulivieri. In 2020 he made his Italian debut at the Festival Internazionale di Mezza Estate (FIME) singing the title role in Gianni Schicchi under the baton of Alexander Frey and Giandomenico Vaccari's direction; in 2021 he returned to sing in La traviata (Germont), Pagliacci (Silvio), as well as in several concerts conducted by Giuseppe Acquaviva, Dian Tchobanov, Martins Ozolins and Marc Moncusí. In 2020 he worked with William Crutchfield and his Teatro Nuovo co-producing videos that revived songs from the bel canto era. In 2018 he made his Carnegie Hall debut in an opera gala featuring young international artists, and his debut in Boston at the Paramount Center and Cutler Majestic Theatre with Albert Herring (Sid) and Pelléas et Mélisande (Golaud), respectively, in BUOI productions directed by Crystal Manich and E. Loren Meeker.

 

In 2022 he won First prize at the Premio Lirico Internazionale Umberto Giordano in its 21st edition, was a finalist at the prestigious Concorso Lirico Internazionale Ottavio Ziino in Rome, won First prize ex-aequo for a new original composition by the Fundación Victoria de los Ángeles in Barcelona, the “Best Latin American male voice” award sponsored by Ocuri Investments, a scholarship to attend the prestigious Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini award; all this at the Concorso SOI Fiorenza Cedolins. He was also a finalist at the 58º Concorso Internazionale Voci Verdiane di Busseto with Fabrizio Cassi conducting La Toscanini orchestra, won Third prize at the 26è Concurs Josep Mirabent I Magrans in Spain, and Third prize at the Zenith Opera Competition. In 2021 he won both First prize and the Ópera de Bellas Artes prize at the 38º Concurso Nacional de Canto Carlo Morelli in Mexico and First prize in the Zarzuela division (sponsored by the Spanish magazine Ópera Actual) at the Concorso SOI Fiorenza Cedolins. In 2017 he won Third prize at the Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition in New York City and was a finalist at the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. As a pianist, in 2005 he won Second prize at the Concurso Nacional de Piano Ollin Yolitzli in Mexico City.

 

He has participated in masterclasses with top level artists and business professionals such as: Rolando Panerai, Mignon Dunn, Barbara Frittoli, Fabio Armiliato, Anna Pirozzi, Michele Pertusi, Eric Halfvarson, Brian Jagde, Howard Watkins, Anthony Manoli, Stefano Sarzani, Mireille Delunsch, Bruno Praticò, Helmut Deutsch, Pierre Vallet, Sebastiano Rolli, Vincenzo de Vivo, David Kneuss and Ron Howell.

— September 2023

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