Biography
The Madrid born soprano Marta Herrera combines in her career genres such as opera and zarzuela with art song and chamber music. In this last genre, she was awarded with the first prize in the prestigious German competition Jugend Musiziert three consecutive years. She has worked under Mstros. Dante Mazzola from La Scala of Milan and she has completed her vocal training with Inma Egido as well as master classes of Barbara Bonney, Edda Moser, Horiana Branisteanu, Ana Luisa Chova, Rita Susovsky, Miguel Zanetti, Juan Antonio Álvarez-Parejo, Julio Alexis Muñoz and Jorge Robaina, as well as with Baroque music specialists Charles Brett, Ruth Holton and Robert Expert. She was the recipient of a scholarship to attend The Interpretation of Spanish Song Festival in Granada, presided by the well-known Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza.
In the field of oratorio, she has sung Gounod´s Mise brève aux chapelles in London and M.A.Charpentier´s Judicium Salomonis under the baton of Oscar Gershensohn as part of The Third Annual Baroque Music Festival of Madrid. Other works in her repertoire as an oratorio soloist include J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria RV 589, Handel´s Messiah, Mozart´s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Bizet´s Te Deum, Haydn´s Creation and Fauré´s Requiem.
Background
Ms. Herrera has performed in numerous recitals and concerts throughout Spain. With the zarzuela company Agrupación Lírica de Madrid, conducted by Mstra. Monsterrat Font, she has performed several main roles in zarzuelas such as El Dúo de la Africana by Fernández Caballero, El Niño Judío by Luna, Agua, Azucarillos y Aguardiente by Chueca, El Huésped del Sevillano by Guerrero, El Cantar del Arriero by Díaz Giles, El Barberillo de Lavapiés and Jugar con Fuego by Barbieri, La Corte de Faraón by Lleó and La Verbena de la Paloma by Bretón.
Among her operatic roles as protagonist there are Belinda in Pucell’s Dido and Aeneas, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Countess Rosina in The Marriage of Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così Fan Tutte and Pamina in The Magic Flute by Mozart, Ännchen in Der Freischütz by Weber, Marzelline in Fidelio by Beethoven, Adina in The Elixir of love by Donizetti, Micaëla in Carmen by Bizet, Margarita in Faust by Gounod, Musetta in La Bohème and Liù in Turandot by Puccini and Jenny in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny by Weill.
Her most recent appearances include a recital of Russian Romantic Song, performed at the Auditorium of the Russian Embassy in Spain, another of opera and zarzuela in the Jofre Theatre of El Ferrol, two concerts of opera arias and duets with the Symphonic Band of the Navy Infantry of Madrid in the Caja España Auditorium of Palencia as well as in the New Theatre “Infanta Leonor” in Jaén, an opera gala with the Music Unit of the Spanish Civil Guard in the Caja Cantabria Theatre of Santander as well as three recitals of art song, opera and zarzuela in the Auditorio Padre Soler in Madrid. She was awarded a scholarship to attend the Interpretation of Spanish and Latinamerican Song Festival, organized by the Saint Louis University and held during the month of July 2008 in the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, where she participated in masterclasses led by, amongst others, the mezzo-soprano Alicia Nafé and the guitarist Ernesto Bitetti. In July and August 2008, Marta Herrera performed in a series of seven concerts in the Music Festival of the Province of Palencia, organized by the Council of Palencia. In December 2008 she performed a series of concerts for voice and guitar throughout the Italian region of Puglia, finishing the tour in the Salone di Rappresentanza´s Auditorium of the Province of Brindisi with the presence of the regional television.
In the spring of 2009, she concluded an international tour with a program of Spanish and Latinamerican Music for voice, guitar and piano presented in the Salmagundi Arts Club and in the Steinway Hall of New York (USA), as well as in the Teatro Municipal of Villarica, Paraguay, in the Teatro Municipal Ignacio A. Pane of Asunción and in the Auditorium Manuel de Falla of the Cultural Centre of Spain Juan de Salazar of the Paraguayan capital, where she also led master classes of Vocal Technique to the students of the Music Conservatories in Paraguay.
In August of 2009, she participated in the closing concert and in the master classes of singing at the Sommerakademie of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg (Austria).
In March of 2010, she attended the singing master classes led by Rita Susovsky at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and the Course of Gestual Performance for Art Song Singers directed by Claudia de Siato, who is a direct disciple of Marcel Marceau in Europa and whose program has been backed up by the IAMEE Project (Impulse of the Art of Mimodrame of Style in Europe).
During the academic years 2009/10 and 2010/11, she colaborated with pianist and professor Mr. Juan Antonio Álvarez-Parejo in the Classes of Vocal Accompaniment that he imparts at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid.
In April 2011, Ms. Herrera was invited by the Spanish Arts Foundation ARCYL to perform the solo role for soprano in the Dutch composer Jacob de Haan´s works Missa Katharina and Cantica de Sancto Benedicto. Her performance was accompanied by the Young Symphonic Band of Castilla y León (JOBASCYL) and the Choir of the University of Salamanca, all conducted by the Austrian Johann Mösenbichler.
In the summer of 2011, she took up residence in the German city of Berlin.
Future engagements
Future engagements for next season include a series of recitals for voice and guitar in different Spanish concert halls, a monographic concert cycle devoted to Joaquín Turina´s work for voice and piano in Brussels and Berlin and a recital of art songs by José Inzenga in Madrid´s Romantic Museum.
Education
Marta Herrera studied in the German School of Madrid and obtained a Degree in Pharmacy from the University Complutense of Madrid. She then received a Diploma from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) of the United Kingdom in the modality of Singing Music Performance. She has complemented her artistic and musical education by taking several courses of the Degree of History and Sciences of Music in the University Complutense of Madrid and by completing the first year of the Degree of Flamenco and Classic Spanish Dance in Madrid´s Dance Academy Marta de la Vega. Concerning her education in languages, she is bilingual in German and Spanish, she speaks and writes fluently in English, Italian and French, and she has got some basic knowledge of Russian.