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About Laura

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Press Kit Materials

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Biography

Applauded by OperaWire for her thrilling performance, and "lovely warm soprano voice and heart-wrenching lyricism," Laura Soto-Bayomi is quickly establishing herself as a versatile performer who strives for honesty, whether on the operatic or concert stage.

This coming October 10th, Laura will sing the role of Maria Callas in composer Clint Borzoni and librettist Elizabeth Coppinger's opera La Callas at Merkin Hall. This new opera  explores and celebrates the personal and professional struggles of opera's eternal diva, Maria Callas.  

Returning to a long-treasured role, Laura performed Violetta in La Traviata with On Site Opera, bringing opera outside to audiences at the West Side Community Garden in NYC.

In March 2024, continuing her role in Santa Fe Opera’s “Opera for All Voices” workshop of The Pigeon Keeper, Laura brought to life Orsia, a young girl living with her father in a fictional Mediterranean island village. David Hanlon and Stephanie Fleischmann’s magic-realist tale explores the relevant ways people struggle with mass migrations and the surprising kindness of the human spirit. 


Laura was overjoyed to perform the emotionally vulnerable and venerable role, Violetta in La Traviata with City Lyric Opera, directed and conducted by friends and colleagues, Rebecca Miller Kratzer and Michelle Rofrano.  “Violetta, played by soprano Laura Soto-Bayomi, gave a striking performance and drew the audience in with her powerful voice and emotional acting.” Front Row Center 5/5/23

Laura was thrilled to sing with American Lyric Theater again, this time as a witch in their workshop of Working for the Macbeths, a comedic retelling of Shakespeare’s classic told through the perspective of a chambermaid, who comes from the family of witches who advise the a king. 

Collaborating with Opera Hispánica and Opera in Williamsburg, Laura brought zarzuela to audiences in New York and Virginia as the Duchesa Carolina in Luisa Fernanda.

2022 brought Laura’s first premiere of a role sing in blended Spanish and English. Laura premiered the role of the romantically-driven and self assured, Luisa, in Armienta’s Zorro with Opera Southwest at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. 

 

Passionate about new music, Laura has performed with City Lyric Opera as Alice in Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of Alice, a retelling of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland. The production will explore Alice’s journey in our modern world, and how technology and social media can be their own false wonderland.


Equally passionate about reviving lesser-performed works, Laura was a Resident Artist with Sarasota Opera, covering the lead role of Giulia in Rossini’s La scala di seta. Earlier that fall, Laura performed the other soprano role of Lucilla in the same opera, with Opera Southwest. In May, Laura first performed with Opera Southwest as Isabella in another of Rossini’s one-act’s, L’inganno felice

During the summer of 2021, Laura performed with Opera Saratoga as Grisostomo, a rather chatty shepherdess, in Telemann’s Don Quichotte at Camacho’s Wedding

 

Laura was the soprano 2019-2020 Artist in Residence with Opera Colorado, where she performed Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia on the mainstage, as well as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and Micaela in Carmen, in touring productions around the state. She has recently performed at the Albuquerque Museum Amphitheater, Opera America, Jordan Hall, Teatro Petrarca in Arezzo, Italy, Chautauqua Institution, and Ellie Caulkin's Opera House, among others. 

During her 2019-20 Artist in Residence with Opera Colorado, in addition to performing on the mainstage and bringing opera to new audiences around the state, Laura also performed many recitals and concerts throughout the Colorado community in versatile locations such as schools, nightclubs, libraries, breweries and community centers, integrating opera and the Colorado culture. 

 

A lover of pasta and travel, Laura was thrilled to spend the 2018 summer season in Italy  performing at the Arezzo Opera Festival. Under the baton of Maestro Ari Pelto and the direction  of Kristine McIntyre, Laura performed the role of Magda in Puccini's La rondine at the historic Teatro Petrarca, and additionally performed a series of concerts around the medieval Italian city.

 

Laura has enjoyed many summers at Chautauqua Institution’s Chautauqua Opera Company. She  made her debut during the 2015 summer season, appearing as the Third Apparition in Macbeth. After receiving an encouragement award at the end of the season, Laura gratefully accepted the invite to return the following summer. During the 2016 season, Laura appeared in Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar and Peep Bo in The Mikado, both under the baton of renowned maestro Steven Osgood.  Because she couldn’t quite get enough of the Chautauqua magic, Laura returned a third summer in a row to make her debut as Norina in Donizetti's comic masterpiece Don Pasquale, directed by David Schweizer and conducted by Steven Osgood. OperaWire applauded her rendition of So anch’io la virtu magica as “thrilling.”

 

In her first year of the Graduate Vocal Arts program at Bard College, led by renowned soprano  Dawn Upshaw and collaborative pianist Kayo Iwama, Laura performed the pivotal role of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw, in which she “portrayed a conflicted character with expert  conviction. -The Millbrook Independent. Laura’s studies also included many recitals and outreach events. Among one of her favorites is Eve in Handel’s Die Schöpfung with the Bard Orchestra led by Leon Botstein. During a special concert at Bard Conservatory, Laura was the soprano soloist in  Mozart’s Requiem under the baton of Maestro Ádám Fischer.

 

Laura received her Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory of Music in 2013  where she first began study with Patricia Misslin. While at NEC, she performed as the soprano soloist in De  Falla’s El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat). She also performed selections from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the New  England Conservatory Symphony under the direction of Hugh Wolff in Jordan Hall. Some highlights from Laura's studies at NEC include Rosalinde in Die  Fledermaus, Climene in Cavalli’s L’Egisto, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. As if Laura wasn't already busy enough as a graduate student, her passion for theatre led her to direct a student-production of  Sondheim’s Into the Woods, which she had a blast with.

 

In 2012, Laura first traveled to Italy, where her love of pasta and wine was affirmed, and where she studied the language and the Italian style at the Bel Canto Institute in Florence. Receiving an award from the program, she was invited to perform a  selection of Italian arias with the Vermont Philharmonic

 

Laura, originally from New Jersey, started performing as a child as a competitive figure skater.  She followed this passion, until she began voice and piano lessons, and enrolled at Mannes Preparatory to study voice, flute and piccolo.  When she's not performing, Laura enjoys crafting, watching psychological thrillers, making sarcastic jokes, and spending time with her turtle, Honey.

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