Mara Waldman

Pianist, Soprano, Conductor, Composer, MCNY Board of Directors,

Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards Jurist

Mara Waldman graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a Masters' Degree in piano, where she studied with Zenon Fishbein, and continued her piano studies with Raymond Lewenthal and Genia Robinor. She made her Carnegie Recital Hall debut to critical acclaim, and was a winner in the New York Chopin Foundation Council International Auditions and the International Piano Recording Competition for her recording of Dello Joio's Third Piano Sonata.  Her recordings of music by Vittorio Rieti for solo piano are published by Columbia Records.  She made her conducting debut with the Bel Canto Opera Company, New York City, led many critically successful performances and was its artistic director for two years. She went on to be cover conductor for New York City Opera’s production of Boito's Mefistofele and for the national tours of Il Barbiere di Siviglia and La Traviata.  For six summers she was guest conductor, soloist and teacher with the NewoperafestivaldiRoma, and has conducted Don Giovanni, Falstaff, La Boheme, Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute for them.  She also performed Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the festival orchestra.

Since 2007 Ms Waldman holds the position of Chorus Master and Associate Conductor for the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera.  In 2012 she conducted Gianni Schicci for them.  Ms Waldman is Music Director and Conductor of the Encompass New Opera Theatre, devoted to the presentation and development of new American theater works.  She was a chorus master for the New York Grand Opera’s Viva Verdi! festival and has performed many opera concerts and prepared many productions for Maestro La Selva, as well.  She is past president of the Leschetizky Association, the New York Singing Teachers' Association and Joy in Singing.  Ms Waldman has been a coach at the AIMS program in Graz, Austria and directed the Opera Arts Workshop at the 92nd St. Y for three years.  She is currently on the faculty of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus where she teaches private voice, and is a certified instructor in Somatic VoiceWork, the Lovetri Method™.

In 2003 Ms Waldman was the Composer in Residence for the Golden Fleece Composers Theater, which presented the premier of her comic opera Love in the Office. The premier of her piano solo work Fantasy on 'Adamant' was reviewed by The New York Times as a "thick-textured neo-Lisztian display piece" and her quintet for voices and instruments Sappho and Aphrodite has been presented by the Aviva Players, the New York Composers Association and NYSTA.  Other compositions include settings of Four Sonnets of Shakespeare for tenor and piano recently performed on the Leschetizky Association Live Music, Live Composers concert, sung by Adam Klein, Tres Canciones Sobre Amor y Naturaleza and a song cycle for soprano and piano titled My Closet: Hats, Heels and Other Horrors! which was premiered at Weill Hall by Jeanné Brown, winner of the Center for Contemporary Opera International Opera Singers competition.