Recognized for her expressive musicality and physicality on stage, Cuban-American and Miami native, Soprano Yvette Loynaz is poised to make her mark in the world of opera. With her rich soprano voice in tow, she has made appearances on the operatic stages of the Caramoor International Music Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Center.

A post-graduate of the Operastudio Vlaanderen in Ghent, Belgium and a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City where she was a student of the late Ted Puffer, she continues to work with both bass-baritone Gidon Saks and Soprano Erika Pauwels in Ghent, Belgium. She has appeared on stage with the Caramoor International Music Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Aspen Music Festival’s Opera Center and continues to work in Belgium and abroad.

In 2014-2015 season, Yvette returns to a beloved Mozart role with Dorabella in Bang-up! Opera’s Così fan tutte directed by Benoît De Leersnyder. Later in the season, she will have the opportunity to recreate the role of Yellow Romy in an adapted version of the contemporary opera Elle moi und töte mich (an oneric representation of the life of the actress Romy Schneider) by Belgian composer Joris Blanckaert and presented by NONA and Spectra Ensemble. Coming up later in 2015, Yvette will make her debut as Violetta in Bang-up! Opera’s La Traviata.

In 2013-2014, Yvette sang the formidable role of Jeanne in Bouchard d’Avesnes by composer Karel Miry with Lyrica Gent and debuted her first Musetta in Bang-up! Opera’s La Bohème directed by Vincent van den Elshout. Other notable engagements in past seasons include an opera gala recital tour with Mexican Tenor Mauricio Villanueva Espinosa throughout the state of San Luis Potosí in Mexico, the role of Bersi in Andrea Chenier with Lyrica Gent at the Vlaamse Opera, and the role creation of Ava in Belgian composer Frank Nuyts’ opera Paternel, featured during Gentse Feesten 2013.

Yvette is a founding member and Artistic Director of the traveling pop-up opera troupe Bang-up! Opera. She continues to be an active ensemble member, singing and creating concepts for concert series and productions.

Other roles in her repertory include Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas, Romeo (Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Hansel (Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel), Lady Angela (G&S’s Patience), Veronique (Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle), Role No. 2 (Conrad Susa’s Transformations), and Thelma Predmore (Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree) with the composer, Mr. Carlisle Floyd, as musical director.

At home with both art song and oratorio, Yvette’s concert experience includes an international debut in Swiss composer Heinrich Herzogenberg’s Christmas Oratorio with the Santa Lucia Chor in Wolhusen, Switzerland, a concert series with The Landmark Society in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands with Miami-based Pianist Rachel Currea, and performances with Duo Caramba!, a flute-guitar duo based in New York City.

Yvette has had the opportunity to work with some of the best directors and conductors in the opera world, including conducting Maestros Andrew Bisantz, Will Crutchfield, Israel Gursky, Stewart Robertson and William Lacey, and stage Maestros Frédéric Dussenne, Ronny Lauwers, Vincent Van Den Elshout, Benoît De Leersnyder, Christopher Alden, Robin Guarino, Chuck Hudson, David Lefkowich, Tazwell Thompson and Dona D. Vaughn.

(Updated October 2014)