Marcelina Román
with Eric Malson, accompanist

Join us for an immersive musical experience that places you in the heart of the performance. Taking place in our intimate Studio space, The Sound Studio series brings you up close and personal with emerging classical performing artists.

Polish soprano Marcelina Román, based in Spain, is an acclaimed international artist whose career encompasses opera, concert performance, and the art song repertoire. She regularly appears as a guest artist at leading opera houses and concert venues, collaborating with distinguished orchestras, conductors and stage directors across Europe and beyond.

Her international engagements include performances at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, as well as appearances with renowned ensembles including the Berlin Philharmonic and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. In Poland, she regularly performs at leading Polish opera houses and concert institutions.

A prizewinner of more than 20 international vocal competitions, Román has received recognition at some of the world’s most prestigious singing competitions, including the Eva Marton International Singing Competition, the International Vocal Competition ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Jāzeps Vītols International Vocal Competition and the Adam Didur International Singing Competition. Following her acclaimed performance in the title role of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide, she was named “Opera Discovery of the Year.” Her role debut as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata earned her the Jan Kiepura Award for Female Opera Debut of the Year.

Throughout her career, Román has had the opportunity to work with distinguished conductors, directors and artistic mentors including Fabio Biondi, Josep Pons, Alex Ollé, Esther de Bros, Ricardo Estrada, Marco Evangelisti, Anthony Manoli, Maria Todaro, Reinhard Seehafer, Jörg Peter Weigle, David Wroe, and the legendary Polish soprano Teresa Żylis-Gara.

Her repertoire encompasses approximately 30 roles spanning the lyric and lirico-spinto soprano repertoire. Her signature roles include the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Pamina and the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Elettra in Idomeneo, Elisabetta di Valois in Verdi’s Don Carlo, Halka in Moniuszko’s Halka, Liù in Puccini’s Turandot, Mimì in La Bohème, Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, as well as roles in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Her repertoire also includes Pauline Viardot in En attendant Chopin, Roxana in Szymanowski’s Król Roger, Ruth in Georg Schumann’s Ruth, Thaïs in Massenet’s Thaïs, Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Violetta Valéry in La Traviata.

Eric Malson is a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician whose activities have taken him throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Orquestra da Fundação Gulbenkian, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, North Carolina Symphony, Columbus (Ohio) Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Oak Ridge Symphony, and Prince William Symphony. As a collaborating pianist with the Steans Institute for Young Artists, he has appeared frequently at the Ravinia Festival, as well as the Tanglewood, Wexford, Caramoor, Scotia, Chautauqua, Évora, Verso il Millennio, and the Mt. Angel Bach festivals . He has appeared in concert with members of the Hagen, Vogler, Alexander, Lark, Cavani, and Ciompi quartets. Malson has served as official accompanist for various competitions, including the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition, Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions. He has served on the opera faculty for Juilliard School of Music and the Mannes College of Music, as well as, the accompanying and chamber music faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. In addition to working with opera companies throughout the U.S. and Europe, he has appeared in concert with sopranos Eva Urbanová, Deborah Voigt, tenor Lawrence Brownlee and Charles Reid, baritone Laurent Naouri, and bass-baritone Alfred Walker.