Cynthia López-Olaya is a Xicana soprano originally from Los Angeles, California and based in Columbus, Ohio. She received her training from The Ohio State University and Boston Conservatory of Music at Berklee. As an emerging artist she has had the pleasure of combining her work in advocacy through her performance career, lectures, panel discussions and philanthropy with leading companies in the industry.
Mrs. López-Olaya’s 2023-2024 season included Natalia (Caravana de Mujeres), a comedic opera about a Colombian immigrant family, where she sang the world premiere at Opera America’s New Works Forum with MassOpera and OperaHub, and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with the Boston Festival Orchestra and NEMPAC Opera Project. She then completed a residency with Hogfish Opera where she sang the role of Frasquita and covered Micaëla (Carmen) in a reimagined production that highlights conditions at the border between El Paso, Texas and Mexico. During her residency she also completed a recital highlighting Nahuatl songs, the most prevalent Indigenous language in Mexico. She then premiered the work Soul Echoes with Concertia HTX as the soprano soloist, a vocal drama elevating narratives of children detained at the US-Mexico border.
Other credits include: Maria (West Side Story), and Mimì (La bohème) with MassOpera; Despina (Così fan tutte) and Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites) with Boston Conservatory Opera; Nannetta (Falstaff) with Martina Arroyo Prelude to Performance; and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) with The Ohio State University Lyric and Opera Theater. In addition to her classical music career she is also the vocalist for a professional contemporary Latin trio in Columbus, OH and she is the co-founder of Latina Women in Opera.
