Carla Canales | |
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| Born | Carla Dirlikov Canales Midland, Michigan, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
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| Website | carlacanales |
Carla Dirlikov Canales is an American mezzo-soprano singer, educator, cultural diplomat, arts advocate, author, and non-profit entrepreneur. [1] [2]
Canales was born in Midland, Michigan, the daughter of a Bulgarian father and a Mexican mother. She earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in opera performance from McGill University. [3] Canales also attended the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and the Paris Conservatory. [4]
Canales also holds an Executive Education Certificate from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and was a 2021 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard University. [5] She is currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. [6]
Canales has earned critical acclaim as an international opera singer. She has performed the title role in Bizet’s Carmen close to one hundred times in twelve countries. Other notable roles include Dalilah in Samson et Dalilah, Eboli in Don Carlo, and Giulietta in Les Contes d'Hoffmann.
As a concert soloist, Canales has performed at venues including Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall. She has also performed extensively as a soloist in China with the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Guangzhou Opera, China’s National Center for the Performing Arts, and at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. [7]
In 2020, Carla released her debut album, "Duende," [8] which received critical acclaim for its fusion of Spanish folk melodies with electronic elements.
As an advocate for arts and culture, Canales has been recognized in multiple capacities, including being named an "Arts Envoy" by the U.S. Department of State. [9]
Canales has been a guest speaker at the United Nations, the Aspen Institute, [10] the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics, and the TEDxMidAtlantic conference. [11] She is the first opera singer on Foreign Policy Magazine’s annual listing of 100 Leading Global Thinkers [12] and the first to join the President's Committee for the Arts and the Humanities Turnaround Arts program. In 2017, she joined the Artists Committee of the Americans for the Arts. [13] She was also a co-founder and the artistic director for CultureSummit Abu Dhabi. [14]
Canales has been recognized as a prominent Hispanic artist and activist. She has performed at the Hispanic Heritage Awards. [15] In 2014, she was a featured artist at the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics' Policy Forum for Music and the Arts. [16]
In 2016, Canales founded The Canales Project, a US-based 501(c)(3) organization that uses music and the arts to address social concerns, raise awareness of identity and culture, and promote cross-cultural understanding.
In 2023, Canales joined the Biden Administration as the first Senior Advisor and Envoy for Cultural Exchange at the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States. [17] [18]
Canales has published a number of articles and book chapters, including a guest op-ed for the New York Times titled “For the U.S. and China, It Starts With Listening” (Oct 7, 2023), [19] a guest op-ed for USA Today titled “Biden should name a secretary of culture and creative industries to drive economic growth”, [20] and book chapters in two recent publications about cultural diplomacy, including “Cultural Diplomacy: Issues and Perspectives” and “Soft Power and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy.”
Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.
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Shirley Verrett was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s; she was particularly well known for singing the works of Verdi and Donizetti.
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Our Town is a three-act opera by composer Ned Rorem and librettist J. D. McClatchy. It is the first opera to be adapted from Thornton Wilder's 1938 play of the same name. The opera was commissioned by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Opera Boston, the Aspen Music Festival and School, North Carolina School of the Arts, Lake George Opera in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, Calif.
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Melody Siu-Wan Sze is a mezzo-soprano singer, voice teacher and singing coach.
The Canales Project (TCP) is an American 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, created to "activate the arts as a tool for social change and impact" and aims to give “voice to issues of identity and culture through music and conversation.”
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