Mariana is a conductor, vocalist, and composer from Mexico City. She grew up in both State College, Pennsylvania and Morelia, Michoacán, where her family currently resides. During 2021-2022, Mariana served as the Associate Director of Choirs at Princeton University’s Department of Music. In this role, she co-directed the Princeton University Glee Club along with its new ensemble, Alegría, a choir dedicated to Latin America & Latino repertoire. As Associate Director, Mariana conducted orchestral ensembles of the collegiate and professional level, including a performance with NYC artist-led collective, Decoda. Starting September 2024, Mariana will be a Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music. She will be the first to complete a hybrid fellowship program of symphonic and opera conducting. At Curtis, Mariana will study with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jim Ross, in addition to assisting various orchestras and Curtis Opera productions.
Mariana is currently Assistant Conductor to the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra and the Maryland Opera Studio. This April, she will debut with the Georgetown University Orchestra and conduct a performance of Daniel Catán’s opera, Florencia en el Amazonas, with the Maryland Opera Studio. As Assistant to the Maryland Opera Studio, she conducted La Bohème, Proving Up, Don Giovanni, and Albert Herring. During her time at Maryland, Mariana has had the privilege of conducting choral singers while learning from Dr. Jason Max Ferdinand.
In June of 2023, Mariana was a Conducting Fellow at the National Orchestral Institute + Festival where she studied with Marin Alsop and conducted the world premiere of “Pressure System” by Dayton Hare. Further conducting studies include masterclasses with Gustavo Dudamel, Jonathon Hayward, and Joseph Young.
As a consort singer, Mariana had the pleasure of performing with acclaimed U.K. choirs, Tenebrae and Gallicantus. Most recently, she sang with Gallicantus in Death of Classical’s concert series presenting Mass for the Endangered, written by Sarah Kirkland Snider.
Mariana has workshopped and premiered roles in new operas and music theater pieces, as well as performed solo recitals of Latin American and Spanish repertoire. As a composer, Mariana explores themes of memory, grief, and cultural dissonance. She presented her original song cycle, La Casa del Árbol: An Immigrant’s Story of Loss and Forgiveness as her senior thesis. She is a past recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts and the Edward T. Cone Memorial Prize, both presented annually to a graduating senior who has demonstrated excellence in performance, execution, or composition in one of the arts.
Mariana has conducted ensembles in the United States, Europe, and Mexico, including a performance in Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli, Mexico City. For three years, she served as conductor of Princeton Camerata, a chamber orchestra championing new works. At Princeton, Mariana served as the Director of Trenton Youth Singers, a youth choir for public school students in the greater Trenton area. Previously, she worked as a Teaching Artist at the Yale School of Music, Music in Schools Initiative. In her role as Program Associate for Trenton Arts at Princeton, Mariana helped coordinate the “The Neighborhood Music Project” as part of Princeton University Concerts, where she worked with artists such as Caleb Teicher, Conrad Tao, Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason.
In 2021, Mariana graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in Music. She is pursuing a Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Maryland School of Music, studying under David Neely. In her career, Mariana seeks cross-disciplinary collaborations as a means of centering underrepresented stories. She’s deeply passionate about bringing new works to life and reimagining classic symphonic masterpieces. As an educator, Mariana offers private lessons in musicia7ship at all levels, voice, and conducting.