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Biography
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A strong and committed vocal performer with a unique tone, Brenda Iglesias excels in concert, operatic, and recital repertoire. A graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, she has been a soloist and an invited artist with notable companies and orchestras around the United States and Mexico like the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Fusion: New Works, Orquesta Sinfónica Carlos Chávez, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM and Orquesta Sinfónica de la UAEH. Her performances have resonated in prominent venues such as the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Teatro Degollado, Prague’s Liechtenstein Palace and Estates Theater, and Cincinnati Music Hall. She has collaborated with several distinguished conductors, including Louis Langrée, James Burton, José Luis Castillo, and Eduardo García Barrios.
Iglesias' wide-ranging repertoire encompasses the principal contralto and mezzo-soprano parts of the oratorio and concert repertoire, from the Baroque through the Classical and Romantic periods, as well as 20th-century music. Concert performance highlights include the solos in Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, de Falla's El Amor Brujo, Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus, and Bach’s St. John Passion. Operatic credits include Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito, Drittte dame in Die Zauberflöte, Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, and Maman, La bergère and La chouette in L'enfant et les sortilèges. An enthusiast of new music, she collaborated with Cincinnati Opera and Opera Fusion: New Works for the world premiere recording of Blind Injustice by Scott Davenport and sang the role of Dr. Muriel Elsie Landeau for the workshop of Picker’s Awakenings for Opera Theater of St. Louis.
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A prize-winner of the famous “Carlo Morelli” National Singing Competition at the Opera of Bellas Artes in Mexico and the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition in Kentucky, Iglesias has also earned recognition through numerous scholarships and grants. Noteworthy among these are Mexico’s prestigious FONCA (National Endowment for the Arts, 2017-19), SNFM (National System of Musical Development, 2014-17), PECDA (Stimulus Program for Artistic Creation and Development, 2012), Pro-Ópera A.C (2017) and the Corbett Full-tuition Scholarship, supporting both her master’s and doctoral studies at CCM. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree with honors from Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo in her hometown in Mexico and was an exchange student at the School of Music of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for one year.
In addition to her artistic activity, Dr. Iglesias enjoys sharing her passion for singing both in the classroom and voice studio. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Previously, she was a C.T. Vivian Scholar at Western Illinois University, where she taught Voice and was the Director of the Opera Workshop. She was a teaching assistant while pursuing her DMA in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy. Brenda continues to expand her knowledge by regularly attending courses such as the New England Conservatory's "Acoustic Vocal Pedagogy", Classical Voice Training's "Singing and Teaching Singing" Advanced Courses, and conferences of the Association for Body Mapping Education (ABME) and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), of which she is a member.
A fierce advocate of Latin American art song, Dr. Iglesias consistently incorporates underrepresented works in her recitals, placing a particular emphasis on showcasing compositions by Mexican and Argentinean composers. Through collaboration with the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City, she was able to recover nineteenth-century repertoire tailored for medium and low voices for her doctoral Lecture-Recital. In her research, she focused on unveiling the overlooked origins of Mexican art song, presenting Mexican works not only in Spanish, but also in Italian, French and German. In March, she is set to deliver a lecture-recital on this subject at the upcoming 2024 Society of American Music Conference in Detroit.
As an entrepreneur, Dr. Iglesias organized and coordinated the “1st National Operatic Singing Seminar” (1er Seminario Nacional de Canto Operístico) together with Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo in Pachuca, Mexico in 2015. In response to the 2020 pandemic, she created and administered a series of online Vocal Pedagogy Workshops for Spanish speakers, instructing over 90 students from 12 different countries. Many reputable soloists, educators, and musicians have influenced her career including Thomas Baresel, Cynthia Lawrence, Kenneth Griffiths, Kathleen Kelly, Mark Calkins, Carlos Aransay, and Horacio Franco.
When Brenda is not pouring her soul into song or teaching, you'll find her exploring plant-based recipes, acquiring new languages, working out at the gym, or having fun with her Argentine husband as they discover the nuances of accent, pronunciation, and the richness of expressions in each other's Spanish.
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