Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Praised for her ‘wonderful sense of musical architecture,’ Mara Waldman has more than earned the title of “Maestra.” As a conductor, composer and pianist, she is equally at home before the keyboard and on the podium.

Mara Waldman first distinguished herself as a pianist. She won the National Piano Recording Competition, for her recording of Norman Dello Joio’s Third Piano Sonata, and the New York Chopin Foundation Competition. In 1984 she was presented by the Leschetizky Association at Carnegie Recital Hall (Weill Hall), where her debut received outstanding critical acclaim. She subsequently recorded a solo piano album for Columbia Records and is in frequent demand as a solo artist and ensemble player.

She began her conducting career as a finalist in the San Diego Opera Young Conductors Competition and afterwards was personally invited by Maestros Zubin Mehta and Max Rudolf to participate in advanced symphonic conducting studies under the auspices of the New York Philharmonic and the Exxon Young Conductors Program. She participated in the Goldovsky Opera Institute, studying opera conducting with Boris Goldovsky and private studies with Maestros Vincent LaSelva and George Schick.

Her passion for the human voice and the drama of theater led her to a career in opera, starting with the Bel Canto Opera Company in New York City. Her first production with that company was a revival of a little known work by Louis Spohr, Zemire und Azor. Based on the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ legend, the work, which had been highly popular in the 19th century, was virtually forgotten, save a lovely aria recorded by Joan Sutherland. Manhattan School of Music recently performed it, using Ms Waldman’s edition, to critical praise both for their production and the beautiful, early romantic score. The critical recognition for Waldman’s conducting generated by this production led to further successes with the BCOC including Murder in the Cathedral by I. Pizzetti, Griselidis by Massenet and Three Mysterious Tales, by composers Jack Beeson, Sheldon Harnick and Mark Bliztstein. Further conducting engagements followed as assistant conductor with the New York City Opera National Company tours of La Traviata and Il Barbierie di Siviglia. She conducted several productions for the NewoperafestivaldiRoma, including Le Nozze di Figaro, La Boheme, Falstaff, and Don Giovanni, and performed the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with the festival orchestra.

Ms Waldman was designated Composer in Residence for the Golden Fleece Composer’s Theatre in 2004 where her opera Love in the Office, a spoof on the Clinton presidency, was produced. Her piano composition, Fantasy on Adamant, premiered by the Aviva Players, a chamber music ensemble devoted to presenting works of female composers, was described by the New York Times as “a thick-textured neo-Lisztian display piece.” Other works, Sappho and Aphrodite, a quintet for voices and instruments, Four Sonnets of Shakespeare for tenor and piano, Tres Canciones sobre Amor y Naturaleza, poetry of Richard Cacchione, for baritone and piano, and My Closet: Hats, Heels and other Horrors, premiered by Jeanne Brown at Weill Recital Hall, have all been performed to great success. Si me Quieres, from the Tres Canciones, can be heard on YouTube, sung by Joost VanBerge.

In her capacity as an active member of the New York City musical community, Ms Waldman has recently had the honor of being elected president of Joy in Singing. As a past president of the New York Singing Teachers’ Association and the Leschetizky Association she maintains an ongoing involvement with the concert and pedagogical life of these organizations. She is Chair of the Leschetizky Association Gifted Young Pianists Competition, a unique competition which provides a piano concerto debut for pianists ages 13 through 17, co-sponsored with Camerata New York, at the Merkin Concert Hall. She is Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor for the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera, and was recently appointed Music Director of the Encompass New Opera Theatre. She conducted their June production of Shaw Sings!, two one-act operas by Philip Hagemann, based on plays of George Bernard Shaw, at the Thalia Theater, Symphony Space, NYC. Ms. Waldman is on the boards of the Children’s Foundation for the Arts and the Greenwich Village Singers.

In addition to her performing and composing, she is proud to have an active vocal studio in New York City, thanks to the legacy of her mother, soprano Lucila Montoya. She completed her certification for Somatic Voicework (sm) - The LoVetri Method, this summer, at Shenandoah University. Her semi-annual studio recitals are sponsored by Klavierhaus Pianos, 211 West 58th St, NYC, to whom she is most grateful. And, she has been known to sing upon occasion, and enjoys it very much!