Signature Series: Oriana Falla, Soprano, & Brian Holman, piano

BIOS

Oriana Falla, Soprano

Praised by Opera News for singing with “palpable purity” and by LA Opus for her “large, lovely, and vibrant [voice],” Colombian-American soprano Oriana Falla, 2022-2023 season includes a role debut as Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Pacific Opera Project and Opera in the Heights.

Previous engagements in the 2021-2022 season included a Concert for Peace for the Washington Concert Society and the soprano soloist for Handel's Messiah. Oriana also recorded for the soundtrack of Disney’s film Encanto. She also recorded and performed a table read of Marian, an original musical based on the life of famed contralto Marian Anderson.

In December 2020, Oriana sang Mimi in Pacific Opera Project’s drive-in performance of La Bohѐme; Opera News hailed the performance as sung with “rare clarity” and referred to her performance as having “plumbed the character’s emotional depths… the most heart wrenching moment of the performance.” In 2019, Falla made role debuts as Violetta in La Traviata with New Rochelle Opera and as the Infanta in Der Zwerg with Numi Opera Theater.

A Los Angeles native, she attended UCLA, where she studied with renowned baritone Vladimir Chernov. There she was the featured soprano soloist for Vaughan William’s Dona Nobis Pacem in Royce Hall, Orff's Carmina Burana with the UCLA Philharmonia ,and La Fée in Massenet’s Cendrillon. She is an Opera Buffs’ grant recipient and sang the role of Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen with them. Falla is a soloist with the Long Beach Camerata singers where she sang Orff’s Carmina Burana and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Oriana currently studies voice with internationally acclaimed soprano Joyce El-Khoury.

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“

Her voice is large, lovely, and vibrant, and she sang her solo with moving conviction.

— JIM RUGGIRELLO LA OPUS

“

Ms. Falla was a smirking force with a rich voice.

— Jordan Bäumel - Singerpreneur

“

The soloists the other day were excellent... Oriana Falla a vibrant soprano

— Jim Ruggirello Music Critic

“

Soprano Oriana Falla’s stunning red dress, didn’t distract from some extraordinarily spectacular vocalism... Falla scaled the insane heights of ‘Dulcissime’ with ease while supplying a meltingly lovely ‘In trutina.

— THE GRUNION

“

What a voice, again rich and vibrant, with an effortless ability to scale Donizetti’s complex bel canto. She’s a veteran of Pacific Opera Project’s Elixir last season, and she, too, is destined to become a star. She’s a looker, too, in her A-line dresses and red-and-cream patent shoes, with hair pulled back in soft pony tail. She’d turn heads in any era.

— Houston Press

Brian Holman, piano

“Dazzlingly talented” (The Sunday Mail, Zimbabwe) and wielding a “magic baton” (Brooklyn Eagle), American conductor Brian Holman has performed on four continents to great acclaim. This past season, he debuted with Cleveland Opera Theater (Amelia Lost), Marble City Opera (La Traviata), and appeared at Film Fest Tucson (The Mine With the Iron Door), and the Harare International Festival of the Arts with Baroque2000 Chamber Orchestra. He recently conducted at the Mediterranean Opera Festival in Sicily, led a concert performance of Tosca at Merkin Concert Hall, and joined New York City Opera as assistant conductor for the New York premiere of Florencia en el Amazonas at Lincoln Center. Brian has worked with Opera Africa, Treasure Coast Opera, New Rochelle Opera, New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Pops Orchestra, Ensemble Mise-En, and DETOUR New Music Ensemble. Brian is active in developing innovative presentations of operas, as his recent on-site performances of La Traviata won special kudos “for the impressive work of pacing and control of the action, and miraculously maintaining the synchronization of the instrumental ensemble to the singers in different rooms.” (Arts Knoxville)

An accomplished pianist and “superb partner artist” (Hudson-Catskill), lauded for his “strong support” of singers (Musical Connection), Brian has performed with many important artists, including Nelly Miricioiu, Laquita Mitchell, Aprile Millo, Stella Zambalis, Hyona Kim, Sara Murphy, Francisco Casanova, John Mac Master, James Valenti, Lester Lynch, Daniel Borowski, and Latin pop legend Nini Cáffaro. His collaborative work has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the United Nations, Salle Cortot, Teatro Nacional de Santo Domingo, Broadway’s 54 Below, MGM Grand Detroit, and The Rainbow Room. Brian’s performances have been broadcast on international radio (Classic FM, Sirius XM, Esimora Cultural RAC Colombia, KBAQ Phoenix, WUOT Knoxville, Radio Maria) and television (Alhurra, LBCI, Tele-Occidente Sicilia, TeleMATER, WBIR Knoxville).

Brian Holman served on the faculties of Montclair State University, American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Westchester Summer Vocal Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, Mannes College of Music, and was guest coach for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He was Assistant Music Director of Mediterranean Opera Festival for three seasons in Sicily. This summer he joined the faculty of the Accademia Vocale Lorenzo Malfatti in Lucca, Italy.

A native of Arizona, Brian studied piano at Arizona State University and Manhattan School of Music. He attended conducting seminars at L’Ècole Normale de Musique in Paris, in the Czech Republic, and studied in New York. Brian performed in the masterclasses of Ivan Moravec, Vladimir Feltsman, Francisco Aybar, as well as vocal masterclasses of Mariella Devia, Giuseppe Filianoti, Ira Siff, Lauren Flanigan, Verónica Villarroel, Nicola Martinucci, Marcello Giordani, Salvatore Fisichella, Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi, Pietro Ballo, and John Fisher. Brian’s own compositions have been performed by the Tucson Symphony and Tucson Pops orchestras. He was commissioned in 2010 by the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation to write an original score to the 1924 silent film The Mine with the Iron Door. His piano solos are also heard on the soundtrack of Dave Boyle’s indie romantic comedy, White on Rice.

Location:

Oracle Center for the Arts

700 E. Kingston St.

Oracle, AZ 85623