Alumni Update: Camille Ortiz-Lafont

2017 opens with an exciting appearance in Rameau’s Le Temple de la Gloire with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and maestro Nicholas McGegan and stage director Catherine Turocy.  Camille will sing the roles of Une bergère (Act I), Érigone (Act II), Junie (Act III), and Une dame romaine (Act III). The production will use a newly rediscovered edition and will be the first fully staged production, to be recorded under PBO’s label on DVD. Rehearsals take place in Paris and in the San Francisco/Berkeley area in April for performances at the end of the month.

Some career highlights for Camille since her 2012 appearance as Frasquita with dell’Arte include her Carnegie Hall debut as soprano soloist in Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living and performing as soprano soloist in John Rutter’s Mass for the Children under the composer’s baton for the Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece, where she also covered the role of Gilda in Rigoletto.  She has also appeared as Musetta and in art song concerts for the Berlin Opera Studio in Berlin and Bayreuth.  In the fall of 2014 she moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX area to begin DMA studies at University of North-Texas.  At UNT she appeared as Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, was a 2015 concerto competition finalist singing Lakme’s “Bell Song”, and has presented three full solo recitals.  She is currently “ABD” with her proposal accepted!  2016 saw exciting career breakthroughs, particularly in the Baroque field.  She made her Dallas Bach Society debut as La Musique in Charpentier’s Les arts florissants and her debut with Orchestra of New Spain as Quiteria in Telemann’s Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho.

Ms. Ortiz-Lafont writes, “I am ever so grateful for dell’Arte, which shaped my developing process as an artist so I could further my artistic pursuits.  Chris Fecteau was and is a wonderful coach and mentor and always encouraged me by pushing me and believing in my potential.  Thank you!”