Puerto Rican soprano Camille Ortiz has garnered international acclaim captivating audiences in opera and concert. A versatile artist, she equally thrives as a baroque specialist or with standard repertoire, all the while championing new works. Ms. Ortiz begins the 2023-2024 season as an inaugural resident artist with Seattle Opera, covering Woglinde and Freia in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Morgana in Handel’s Alcina, as well as performing a recital in the fall. Additional season performances include a debut with Portland Baroque Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah under John Butt’s baton; a debut as the soprano soloist for Portland Chamber Orchestra’s “A Night in Old Vienna” under the direction of Yaacov Bergman; and a return to the role of Oriana in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula with Ars Lyrica Houston.

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The 2022-2023 season included appearances with Opera Orlando as Marie in Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment; Galatea in Handel's Acis and Galatea with Eugene Opera; performances of Crossing Borders, a program of Spanish and Latin American baroque repertoire, with Ars Lyrica Houston at the San Diego Early Music Society and Arizona Early Music, Tucson Desert Song Festival; a baroque program with Chamber Music Amici; the soprano soloist for Palmeri’s Misa a Buenos Aires (Tango Mass) with Eugene Concert Choir; a world premiere of Colin Pip Dixon’s Invocation with the Elsewhere Ensemble; recitals and masterclasses at University of North Texas and Southeastern Oklahoma University with her husband, oboist Joseph Wenda, as DWO: Duo Wenda-Ortiz; and an Oregon Bach Festival debut under the baton of Jos van Veldhoven with the Berwick Academy Orchestra.

 

Performance highlights of the 2021-2022 season include a Kennedy Center debut as Elena (Hélène) in Opera Lafayette’s adaptation of Gretry’s Silvain, for which she was hailed as “a dramatic tour de force” by Washington Classical Review (Charles Downey, June 2022). A few weeks prior, she made her debut with the Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman's baton as Oriana in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula opposite Anthony Roth Costanzo as Amadigi, Daniela Mack as Dardano, and Amanda Forsythe as Melissa, for which she was described on Opera Magazine as possessing a “shimmering lyric sound” (David Shengold, July 2022). She was also seen as Pamina in Eugene Opera’s The Magic Flute and in performances for Ars Lyrica Houston’s Crossing Borders in Houston and New York City’s Music Before 1800. An avid recitalist and champion of Latin American art song, Ms. Ortiz performed recitals across the United States and taught masterclasses at University of Idaho, Concordia College, and the Puerto Rico Conservatory.

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2019-2020 appearances include a full recital for Opera Orlando's Opera on Park series, scenes from West Side Story for Gulfshore Opera's Song and Dance, a faculty recital for the Nisita Concert Series at Florida Gulf Coast University, Marie in Opera Orlando's The Daughter of the Regiment (cancelled due to Covid-19), and Gilda in the Gulf Coast Symphony's production of Rigoletto (cancelled due to Covid-19). Her fall 2018 performances with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale of Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, Coronation Mass in C major, and Litaniae Lauretanae were broadcast on San Francisco’s KDFC, classical music radio.

2018-2019 highlights include Micaëla in Magic City Opera's Carmen; Norina in Don Pasquale with Gulfshore Opera; a return to San Francisco for the "Mozart Magnified" series with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, Nicholas McGegan conducting, as the featured soprano soloist in Exsultate, jubilate, Coronation Mass in C major, and Litaniae Lauretanae; and a Houston debut as Poppea in Handel's Agrippina with Ars Lyrica Houston.  The summer of 2018 saw her debut as soprano soloist for Rutter’s Requiem, J. Rutter conducting the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina; and Schubert’s Mass in G-major and Vivaldi’s Gloria in Syros, Greece with the International Festival of the Aegean.

           

2017-2018 season appearances include Gilda in Rigoletto, Micaëla in Carmen, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Marguerite in Faust, Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, and Maria in West Side Story as the resident soprano with Gulfshore Opera in Naples, FL.  Ms. Ortiz was also featured in a full recital for the Dallas Bach Society titled "Coloratura Furiosa," including works by Vivaldi, Rameau, Purcell, Bach and Handel. 

             

The 2016-2017 season saw her appearance as a leading soprano embodying several roles (Une bergère, Érigone, Junie, Une dame romaine) in the award-winning revival of Rameau’s Le Temple de la Gloire, a co-production of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and the San Francisco based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, conducted by Nicholas McGegan and directed by Catherine Turocy.  BBC Music Magazine (October 2018) named Ms. Ortiz the vocal “stand-out” for the production's highly acclaimed CD recording. 

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Other notable appearances include Orchestra of New Spain’s Misa Flamenca and Mozart's Coronation Mass in C Major for the International Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece.

She made appearances as La Musique in Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants with the Dallas Bach Society; Quiteria in Telemann’s Don Quichotte with Orchestra of New Spain; Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with the Fillmore Opera Studio. 

           

The 2014 season included her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist for Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living; the soprano solo in John Rutter’s Mass of the Children under Rutter’s baton, International Festival of the Aegean; Musetta in La Bohème as well as art song concerts for the Berlin Opera Studio.  She has appeared as a featured artist of the “Buena Gente” section of El Diario NY.                

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Other roles include Antonia (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) at UNT Opera, Lucia (Rape of Lucretia) at Manhattan School of Music, Blondchen (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) for the Martina Arroyo Role Learning Class, Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera) for Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, Fire/Nightingale (L’enfant et les sortilèges) for Coópera: Project Opera of Manhattan, Susan Hoerschner (Clarence and Anita) for the Center of Contemporary Opera NY, Adina, Norina, and Musetta for Centro Studi Lirica in Italy, and Frasquita in Carmen with Dell’Arte Opera. ​

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Notable engagements include directing and performing for Opera Hispánica NY; soprano soloist with the Zipoli Ensemble NY; appearing in venues such as the Sala Manuel de Falla in Granada, Spain under the tutelage of Teresa Berganza, the Carlos Chávez Hall of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, D.F., Avery Fischer Hall at the Lincoln Center, the Heckscher Theater at El Museo del Barrio, Steinway Hall NY, The Kaye Playhouse, the America’s Society, the Museum of the City of New York, as well as on national television broadcast network Telemundo and HBO live.  

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Ms. Ortiz is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Oregon, School of Music and Dance.  She completed a D.M.A. at University of North Texas, a Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music, a Bachelor of Music degree at Oral Roberts University where she double-majored in voice and violin, and is a graduate of the pre-college division of the Puerto Rico Conservatory.  She is the winner of the Gerda Lissner Foundation 2008 Encouragement Award and a finalist in both the Liederkranz 2009 competition, Lieder division, and the Sergei and Olga Koussevitzky 2010 Young Artists Competition.  She has also served on the faculty of Florida Southwestern State College, Florida Gulf Coast University, Ave Maria University, and the Greek Opera Studio.