Maria 'Pia' Ugarte

Maria Pia Ugarte began her vocal and musical training with Maestro Manuel Cuadros Barr, Founder and Musical Director of La Coral de Lima and Camerata Vocale Orfeo, and former Musical Arts Advisor to the President of the Republic of Perú. She moved to the United States in 1988 to continue her education in music at The Juilliard School.

In 1992, Ms. Ugarte was awarded a scholarship by the New York University Alumnae Club and an award from Pi Lambda Theta, International Honor and Professional Association in Education. She completed her Associate Degree in Business at New York University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1994. She was awarded a scholarship by the New York Grand Opera Training Program in 1995 to continue her training in opera. In 1998, she was awarded the Spivey Foundation Scholarship and the American Business Women’s Association Scholarship to continue her music and vocal training at Clayton College and State University. She has participated in several master classes with renowned performers and vocal coaches, including Mr. Richard Miller, Director of the Oberlin Conservatory Vocal Arts Institute, and Metropolitan Opera’s Sherrill Milnes.

Ms. Ugarte has performed in South America with La Coral del Papa (His Holiness “John Paul II's” Choral), La Coral de Lima, Camerata Vocal Orfeo, and Compañía Municipal de Arte Lírico. She has been heard in New York and New Jersey, with New York University, The Juilliard School, the New York Grand Opera Training Program, and the New York Grand Opera Company. She has performed in Atlanta with reknown American composer Pauline Oliveros in a live web broadcast from Agnes Scott College, and has been heard at Spivey Hall in recital. In 1999, Ms. Ugarte created the role of Madame Kamecke in the world premier of Larry Corse’s “Frederick Hohernsollern,” and performed the role of Lilly in Corse’s “Elizabeth’s Flowers.”

Ms. Ugarte’s repertoire includes roles and arias from the standard (Italian, German, and French), Czech, and American opera, as well as Spanish zarzuela and recital material from the Italian, French, Spanish, German, English, Russian, Czech, Polish, Basque, Catalan, Latin American, and American vocal literature. She has also performed sacred music (Latin), musical theater, and classical-crossover, and is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, and French.

As a voice over talent, Ms. Ugarte has been the Spanish voice for the Texas distributor of the “New York Times,” the “Star Ledger,” “Statesman”, “Austin American Statesman,” “Express News,” the “San Antonio Express News,” “TV Now,” and “Scanner,” and for "The Reno Gazette." She has recorded in different Spanish accents (Castillian, various Central American and South American accents, as well as neutral), and in English and Italian for clients in the United States, Europe, South and Central America. She has dubbed for video production for companies like IBM. As a translation specialist, she has worked for the entertainment industry, on documentation and scripts, for Peruvian movie director “Lucho” Lloza Urquidi, best known in the United States for his work in the motion picture “Anaconda” starring Jennifer Lopez. She has translated legal documentation for the governments of Puerto Rico and Perú, as well as for several different industries. She is active as an English-Spanish/Spanish English interpreter in the Atlanta area and has been published by Peruvian newspaper, Diario “El Comercio,” the oldest and one of the most prominent journal in South America, covering prominent Peruvian musicians in the United States.

Since early in her career, Ms. Ugarte has been active in theater. She trained in Perú under the tutelage of that country’s first lady of the theater, Dame Elvira Travesí. She has performed several roles from the English and Spanish literature, among others, Georgina in Lowell S. Swortzell’s “My American Cousin,” and as Karen Andre in Ann Rand’s “The Night of January Sixteenth.” Ms. Ugarte has also been involved in television, film, and professional modeling in Peru and the United States, particularly in Atlanta with the latest advent of the film industry.

In 2000, she successfully presented “Maria Pia Ugarte Sings the Sounds of Christmas.” Following, Ms. Ugarte focused her efforts in the work for her single "Othello: Ave Maria" released in 2003 and appeared in Atlanta's Olympic Park with the "Festival Peachtree" and the "Lighting of the Peace Tree" at The Avenue in Peachtree City. In 2006 she founded "Voices" and now heads this performing arts organization as Artistic Director. During the winter of this same year, Ms. Ugarte returned to New York and joined New York Grand Opera for a program at Carnegie Hall featuring Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" and in 2007, she formed the female solo ensemble "Zaphyra" A couple of years ago, she was approached by Lithuanian pianist, Inna Satunovsky, who was looking to record a cycle of art songs she had composed for her grandson. At the end of that year, they teamed up starting work on "Songs for Eli" which is scheduled for release in 2018.

Parallel to her performing career, Ms. Ugarte has a deep love for teaching. She established The Ugarte Studio, in 1996 when she moved to Fayette County in the Atlanta area from New York. Since then, she has been developing talent teaching voice, piano, composition, recording, performing and languages in all styles from contemporary to musical theater, classical and opera. Her students are constantly cast in leads and can be seen winning local and national and international competitions and receiving the highest scholastic honors and major scholarships during their educational career.

In 2010, she started a summer program in New York where the top students from The Ugarte Studio perform with New York Grand Opera in one of their fully-staged productions in Central Park. They also coach with teachers from The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and New York University. Coachings include mezzo-soprano, Dianna Heldman, Director of Vocal Performance and Musical Theater at New York University's Steinhart School; and Maestro Vincent La Selva, Founder and Artistic Director of New York Grand Opera, who among his many awards has been honored by President Bill Clinton, the Governments of Italy and France for his contributions to music and by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani with the Haendel Medallion, the highest honor in the City of New York for contributions to the arts. This year the studio participated in Puccini's "Tosca" which received high praises by "The New York Times."

Ms. Ugarte has been a judge for multiple talent competitions, including the high school arm of The Tony Awards in Atlanta, The Schuller Hensley Awards.