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Mexican Tenor Mauricio Villanueva Espinosa has landed on the European continent and is drawing all the attention a young handsome Italianate Tenor can dream up (and that’s a lot!). Moving from Mexico to Norway in 2006, he’s been seen on stages all over Norway and western Europe as both lyric tenor and leading Latin pop star of Norway’s popular Latin Band, ChiWahWah.
Forever a San Luis Potosino at heart, Mauricio started his classical studies in Guanajuato, Mexico. A lover of Mexican traditions, like the serenade, Huapango, and other native music styles, Mauricio spent time not only studying voice, but also guitar, percussion, and various Latin-American song styles in addition to the classical European tradition or opera. This serenading, romantic, heartthrob of a tenor blossomed into not just a fantastic lyric tenor, he also composes original songs and lyrics, mostly inspired by his personal experiences. But wait for it ladies, that’s not all. This tenor can also dance! In 2004, Mauricio seriously train to become a professional dancer, studying jazz, tap, and salsa before focusing his full-time attention to opera.
In 2009, Mauricio, alongside his long-time collaborators and friends José Eduardo Flores and Juan Pablo Rivera Sierra, launched ‘Viva México’, a multimedia project created to promote Mexican folk music and culture abroad, and now on the Bang-up! Opera repertoire. As both producer and performer, Mauricio continues to work on projects to promote the wealth of culture and arts of his native Mexico. By 2010, Mauricio’s many professional careers–lyric tenor, Latin band pop star, salsa dancer-instructor, choreographer, and producer of arts and cultural education projects–put this tenor on the map and quickly established him as a talent to be reckoned with.
From 2011-2013, Mauricio has been a resident Tenor at the Flanders Operastudio in Ghent, Belgium and currently studies with bass-baritone Gidon Saks. Selected as one of 10 singers from highly competitive and internationally held auditions, he’s surrounded by world-class directors, musicians, masters, on a daily basis.
As a leading tenor, Mauricio is in high demand and loving every minute of it! This 2013-2014 season, in addition to upcoming Pub Projects at Huset, performances for Mauricio include Rodolfo in La Bohème, Werther in Lettres de Werther with Bang-up! Opera, and Peter Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw at the Royal Conservatory in Ghent under the direction of Gidon Saks. Mauricio has also been invited to perform in México this season as a featured soloist with orchestra and a tour of recitals and projects this coming February 2014.
Watch out Mark Anthony, listen up Emilio Estefan, here comes Mauricio Villanueva!
Mauricio is a graduate of the University of Agder Music Conservatory (Kristiansand, Norway) and an alumnus of the University of Guanajuanto’s School of Music (Guanajuato, Mexico), Agder Folkehøgskole’s Jazz and Norwegian Folk Studies (Kristiansand, Norway), and the Conservatorio di Musica L. Refice (Frosinone, Italy).
To keep up with Mauricio, become a fan of his musician page on Facebook!
And, find out even more about Mauricio on his artist website, www.mauriciovillanueva.com.
La Bohème, Grand Opera Night, Così fan tutte, Naked Recital, Por Amor, ¡Viva la mùsica!, Night at the Opera, Una noche de amor
Hmmm…
Ruben Blades
La Bohème (Puccini)
The feeling of being able to create and make people feel alive from the inside during a performance.