Mezzo-soprano Victoria Vargas has sung over twenty five roles for the Minnesota Opera and has performed with Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Chautauqua Opera, Sarasota Opera, Ash Lawn Highland Festival and others. Her concert credits include performing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (NY), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (MN), Chautauqua Symphony, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Billings Symphony, Bach Society of Minnesota, and Minnesota Orchestra. She has placed seven times at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at both the district and regional levels. She was a finalist at the Irene Dalis competition through Opera San Jose, placed at the Schubert Club Competition, and was a recent Music in Action grant recipient for the Wagner Society of the Midwest. This season’s highlights include creating the role of Nelly in the world premiere of Edward Tulane for Minnesota Opera, premiering the workshop of Jorge Sosa’s newest opera, Generación Perdida based on the book by Javier Moro, and she upcoming recital tour inn Ireland featuring music of female identifying Irish and British composers.
Victoria is currently on faculty at the University of Minnesota. Her previous teaching appointments include the MacPhail Center for Music and Carleton College. Her teaching is a combination of her research on the vocal mechanism and its function in balanced singing, teachings of her former and present teachers, and her practical application of technique used on stage in various genres and styles of repertoire. Mrs. Vargas was awarded the James E. Ericksen grant for pedagogy research on how classical voice instruction differs from Contemporary Commercial Music singing, the Crossing the Bridge grant from Carleton College, where she produced and directed the opera Swede Hollow by Ann Millikan, and recently received an Imagine grant to support the Opera Cooperative program which is a partnership and training program between the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Opera. Mrs. Vargas is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and in 2018 was chosen as one of twelve teachers for the NATS internship program. She is also a member of the Pan American Vocology Association, and the Voice Foundation.