Mexican soprano Judy Yannini joined Portland Opera’s Resident Artist program in 2022, where she made her company and role debut as Frasquita in Carmen. This year, Judy also made her Kennedy Center debut singing the role of Sara Morales in IN Series’ world premiere of Brian Arreola and Anna Deeny Morales’s opera ZAVALA-ZAVALA. She was also recently seen with IN Series as Mimí in a Spanish-language reimagining of Puccini’s La bohéme, Bohème in the Heights. She returned in 2023 to sing the role of Consuelo in John Adams’s I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. 

 

A recent graduate of the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, Judy performed a number of roles with the university, including Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante and Rima in Hajar.  

 

In 2021, Judy was named a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. In 2020, she won first prize in the American Opera Idol Competition with Opera Connecticut, and she was also named the overall winner of the Hartt Vocal Division Competition in 2018. 

 

Before immigrating to the United States, Judy made a name for herself singing onstage with internationally renowned Mexican tenor Fernando de la Mora in the 122nd Anniversary Concert in her native Tijuana, Mexico. She was also part of Ensamble Lírico Juvenil and Centro Cultural Tijuana’s group Opera Ambulante, performing opera flash mobs across Mexico, Canada and the USA. 

 

Yannini holds a master’s in music in Opera Performance from the University of Maryland- Maryland Opera Studio as well as a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Hartford-The Hartt School.