MARIANA ORTIZ (Frasquita) was born in Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela. She studied singing at the Conservatory of Music at Aragua State with Lola Linares. She is a graduate from the University of Carabobo, where she majored in Music Education. In June 2006 she obtained a Master’s Degree in Voice at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels, Belgium. She pursued further studies with teachers Isabel Palacios (Venezula), Sara Catherine (Venezula), Margarida Natividade (Belgium), David Roblow, and Phillip Picket, among others.

A member of the Camerata Barroca de Caracas, directed by the teacher Isabel Palacios, she has made several recordings devoted to Latin American Baroque music and the music of the colony in Venezuela, and participated in prestigious festivals nationwide and internationally.

Among their many roles are Erste Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte; Proserpine and Messaggero in Monteverdi’s Orfeo; Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème; Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni; Musetta in La bohème, under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel; Pallas and Damigella in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, under the direction of René Jacobs and performed at the Theatre des Champs Elysées (Paris), Staatsoper (Berlin), and Theatre de la Monnaie (Brussels). This same production was directed in 2008 by director Lars Ulrik Mortensens at the Royal Danish Opera in Denmark.

In 2009 she ventured into the genre of zarzuela, playing Lota in The Pharaoh’s Court, Aurora in The Leander, and The Duchess Carolina in Luisa Fernanda, the latter of which was a co-production between the Teatro Teresa Carreño, the Teatro Real de Madrid, and the Greet Foundation, under the direction of Paul Mielgo. In the same year she played the role of Violetta Valery in La traviata and Health in La vida breve under the baton of Edmon Colomer, and Frasquita in Carmen under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. She has also participated in several critically acclaimed concerts with major orchestras: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Mahler’s Second and Fourth Symphonies, Handel’s Messiah, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas brasilieras No. 5 and Floresta do Amazonas.

Recent and current engagements include performances in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, La traviata, Carmen, Pagliacci, and La bohème.