Israeli mezzo-soprano MAYA LAHYANI is currently a second-year Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. Her San Francisco Opera main-stage debut came in summer 2010 as Wowkle in La fanciulla del West under Nicola Luisotti. Subsequent roles and productions with the company include Siegrune in Francesca Zambello’s critically acclaimed production of Die Walküre (Donald Runnicles conducting); Sister Marta and The Duenna in Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Plácido Domingo; The Makropulos Case with Karita Mattila; and Beppe in Merola Opera Program’s L’amico Fritz. The 2011/12 season sees Lahyani take the War Memorial Opera House stage in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ Heart of a Soldier under conductor Patrick Summers and covering Maffio Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia.

Other performances in the 2011/12 season included Lahyani’s debut as the fiery temptress Carmen in San Francisco Opera’s student performances of the Bizet tragedy. She also made her Dallas Opera company debut as the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte under the baton of Graeme Jenkins.

Prior to coming to San Francisco, the mezzo-soprano was a member of the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program where she appeared in the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte. She also regularly took part in The International Vocal Art Institute in Tel Aviv, where she sang Rebecca Nurse in The Crucible, the title role in Mascagni’s Zanetto, and Charlotte in Werther. Lahyani received her bachelor’s and master’s of music from the Mannes School of Music in New York, where credits include Frugola in Il tabarro, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Mother Marie in Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Flora in La traviata.

Lahyani’s vast concert-work portfolio includes performances as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus under Luisotti’s baton, Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Jerusalem Symphony, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody with the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, and the alto soloist in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the San Francisco Symphony under Kurt Masur.

Lahyani is a 2010 grand finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a 2008 finalist in the Joy in Singing Competition. She has been awarded scholarships by the San Francisco Foundation, the American-Israeli Cultural Foundation, the Ronen Foundation, and the Israeli Vocal Arts Institute.