Meet Hugo Vera
VOLA Founder, Artistic Director, & Voice Teacher
A native Texan, tenor Hugo Vera is described as possessing a “truly heroic voice” that is both “beautiful and brilliant.” Mr. Vera has performed over 50 roles and 65large choral orchestral works with distinguished companies in the US as part of his musical and artistic development of the full lyric tenor repertoire. In addition to being on The Metropolitan Opera roster for seven seasons, Mr. Vera has sung with such prominent companies such as theLyric Opera of Chicago, Spoleto, USA, Kansas City Symphony, New York City Opera, Illinois Symphony, Indianapolis Opera, Opera Memphis, Center for Contemporary Opera,Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Sarasota Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera North, The Minnesota Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Nashville Opera, Tanglewood Music Festival and Arizona Opera. As an active recitalist and clinician, he has performed recitals as an Artist in Residence at Dartmouth College, University of Texas-Pan America, Westminster College, Theatre Lawrence, Presbyterian College, GLOW Lyric Theatre, Edinburg Consolidated School District, Lawrence Arts Center, SUNY Oswego and Presbyterian College.
His 2021-2022 season includes performances Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly” with Indianapolis Opera, Don Jose in “Carmen” with Opera Aegean (Turkey), “Passione” with GLOW Lyric Theatre, debut with Lyric Opera of Orange County as Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly,” “All is Calm” with Opera North, debuts with Mission Opera (CA) as Don Ottavio in “Don Giovanni,” Pinkerton in “Madame Butterfly” with Lyric Opera of Orange County and recitals in Los Angeles, Seattle, Lawrence, KS and Greenville, SC.
Hugo released a new recording in 2020 entitled “Romances and Poems” featuring the works of Russian composer Sergei Taneyev on the Centaur Recording label. It can be found on Amazon and iTunes. He is also featured and Emmy nominatedin "Riders of the Purple Sage: The Making of a Western Opera" which is also an official selection of the Lone Start Film Festival. Aside from being featured on various Metropolitan Opera Live in HD broadcasts, he can be heard in various world premiere recordings and broadcasts which include Ricky Ian Gordon’s “The Grapes of Wrath” (Minnesota Opera), Craig Bohmler’s “Riders of the Purple Sage” (Arizona Opera) as well Paul Paray’s Mass and DVD of Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” (Metropolitan Opera) as well as the virtual world premiere micro-opera, “Wide Awake in the New City” by Lisa Neher.
Mr. Vera enjoyed the privilege of training with several noteworthy young artist programs including the Brevard Music Center, the Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Music Center, Chautauqua Opera, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Minnesota Opera, Opera North, Sarasota Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera.
As an educator, he has served on the music faculties at Presbyterian College, New York University, University of Kansas, and the Midwest Summer Music Institute He keeps an active private voice studio in Tucson and New York City. He is Director of Vocal Arts & Opera at California State University, Northridge. He is also Executive Director, of Lawrence Opera Theatre (LOT) a summer music performing company as well as Artistic Director of the Vocal Academy of Opera(Turkey).
He holds a D.M.A. (Honors) in Voice/Opera and Choral Conducting from The University of Kansas, an M.M. (Honors) in Voice/Opera from The University of Kansas, and a B.M. in Voice from the University of Utah and Certificate in Grant Writing for Non-Profits from The University of Notre Dame. Further education includes The University of Michigan, and various summer vocal institutes.