Grace Echauri (Amneris)
Young mezzo-soprano Grace Echauri is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, where she made her operatic debut there at a very early age as Maddalena in Rigoletto with the Guadalajara Opera.
Her career quickly progressed to engagements at the Palacio de Bellas Artes as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri, Azucena in Il Trovatore, La Gran Duquesa in Alicia and Soledad in La Mulata de Cordoba. She also participated in a gala operatic concert at the Bellas Artes with Placido Domingo. Ms. Echauri has sung with all of the major opera companies in Mexico, and in the United States and Thailand. She has appeared in such roles as The Cast, Con’t ... Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Luisa Fernanda, Carmen, Amneris in Aïda, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, under the direction of important conductors as Marco Armiliato, Enrique Patrón de Rueda, Anton Coppola, Eduardo Díaszmuños, Giampaolo Bracali, Marco Letonjia, Alfredo Silipigni and Somtow Sucharitkul. In November 2005, Ms. Echauri sang Amneris in Aïda with Bohème Opera, New Jersey, in December the Mozart Mass in C minor with the National Symphonic of Marina. This coming season, she will sing Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Carmen at the Bellas Artes, Carmen for Tulsa Opera, and the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall conducted by John Rutter. Ms. Echauri is a recipient of the Mozart Award from the Austrian Embassy in Mexico in recognition of her musicianship in six CDs of contemporary operatic and symphonic music. One of those CDs, the opera Ildegonda by Melesio Morales, received the Michel Garcin Orphée d’ór Award as “The Record of the Year” in France. In 1999, she was the winner of the International Vincenzo Bellini Vocal Competition in Italy. Her recordings include the world premiere of the opera Madre Juana by Federico Ibarra, the dramatic oratorio Brindis por un Milenio, written especially for Ms. Echauri by Mr. Ibarra, the Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra recorded live at the Bellas Artes, an album of Sacred and Christmas music and an album of Arias and Duets. Her orchestral repertoire includes Mahler’s Symphonies No. 2, No. 8 and Das Klagende Lied, Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B minor and Christmas Oratorio, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and De Falla’s El Amor Brujo.