Pronouns
she/her/hers
Hometown
Tijuana, Mexico
1.) What are you most enjoying so far and most looking forward to in the PORA program?
I am looking forward to opening night of The Marriage of Figaro this Saturday! And my voice lessons with Jason Ferrante.
2.) Tell us about what production you’re excited about most this season and why?
I am the most excited about The Marriage of Figaro. We get to work with the chorus, the costumes are beautiful, and it is the opener of the season. A beautiful classic!
3.) Do you have any dream roles you'd like to perform?
Soprano dream role—Mimì from La Bohème. I sang this role in digital production with IN Series titled Boheme in the Heights and I would love to do a fully staged production. But my crazy dream role is Falstaff.
Biography
Mexican soprano Judy Yannini joined Portland Opera’s Resident Artist program in 2022, where she made her company and role debut as Frasquita in Carmen. This year, Judy also made her Kennedy Center debut singing the role of Sara Morales in IN Series’ world premiere of Brian Arreola and Anna Deeny Morales’s opera ZAVALA-ZAVALA. She was also recently seen with IN Series as Mimí in a Spanish-language reimagining of Puccini’s La Bohéme, Bohème in the Heights. She will return in 2023 to sing the role of Consuelo in John Adams’s I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky.
A recent graduate of the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, Judy performed a number of roles with the university, including Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante and Rima in Hajar. In 2021, Judy was named a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2020, she won first prize in the American Opera Idol Competition with Opera Connecticut, and she was also named the overall winner of the Hartt Vocal Division Competition in 2018.
Before immigrating to the United Stated, Yannini made a name for herself singing onstage with internationally renowned Mexican tenor Fernando de la Mora in the 122nd Anniversary Concert in her native Tijuana, Mexico. She was also part of Ensamble Lírico Juvenil and Centro Cultural Tijuana’s group Opera Ambulante, performing opera flash mobs across Mexico, Canada and the USA. Yannini holds a master’s in music in Opera Performance from University of Maryland-Maryland Opera Studio as well as a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from University of Hartford-The Hartt School.
What's a fun fact about yourself that you'd like to share?
Although I was born and raised in Mexico, I learned how to speak English before Spanish.
