• Adjunct Faculty, Voice, Music

First Year at Xavier University:

2009

Expertise:

Voice Teaching

Biography:

Maria Ventura, mezzo-soprano, is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. Ms. Ventura received a BM from the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music and an MM from Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois in Voice Performance. She has taught on the voice faculties of the University of Dayton, Miami University in Ohio, and Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal Ill. Ms. Ventura is a seasoned performer appearing in leading mezzo-soprano roles with various European and American opera houses and orchestras. Companies include, Cincinnati Opera, Dayton Opera, Florida Opera, Kentucky Opera, Miami Opera, Prairie Fire Theatre, Flanders Opera in Belgium, Opera Barga in Italy, Amsterdam Opera in Holland, and Staatstheater Kassel in Germany. Most notably, she performed four years with the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium. Operatic roles included Charlotte (Werther), Ruggiero (Alcina), Dorabella (Cosi Fan Tutte), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Cenerentola (La Cenerentola), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress), Mistress Page and Dame Quickly (Falstaff), The Mother (Amahl), as well as others. Ms. Ventura has appeared as soloist for Cincinnati May Festival under Robert Shaw (Handel’s Messiah) and James Levine (Verdi’s Ernani). She has sung with the Dayton Bach Society (B Minor Mass) and on Belgium National Radio, (The Diary of One Who Disappeared) with Theatre de la Monnaie.