Making her debut as Queen of the Night with Central Florida Lyric Opera, coloratura soprano Nini Marchese was praised for her “riveting vocals that captured the Queen’s black-hearted wickedness” (Villages News). In the upcoming summer festival season 2024, she will be an Apprentice Artist with Opera NEO (San Diego, CA), appearing as Nerea in Nicola Porpora’s Polifemo. Fall 2024, she will join Painted Sky Opera (Oklahoma City), to perform Margret in Jack Beeson’s Lizzie Borden.

As a 2023 Confidencen Opera & Music Festival Young Artist, she performed Baroque arias in Solna, Sweden. “The soprano Nini Marchese steals the show from the first moment, with her humorous, coquettish, and shamelessly amorous singing in the opera cavalcade A Baroque Catwalk” (Expressen). She was in residence with Opera Idaho in 2023/24 as an Emerging Artist, appearing as Barbarina/Susanna cover in The Marriage of Figaro, and covering The Soldier in The Falling and the Rising.

In the 2022/23 season, she toured as Adina in The Elixir of Love with The Dallas Opera Outreach and Education, performing in Dallas schools as well as matinee performances on the Winspear Opera Stage with the Dallas Opera Orchestra. She also appeared as Aldimira in Cavalli’s Erismena (Amherst Early Music Festival) and as the soprano soloist in J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Taylor Festival Choir). She received an Encouragement Award from the Kentucky Bach Choir Audrey Rooney Vocal Competition, and performed as a 2023 Vocal Fellow at Spoleto Festival USA.

She premiered the role of The Computer in Matthew Ritchie and Shara Nova’s opera and film exhibition, Infinite Movement in 2021. Her other notable operatic roles include Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Valentina Scarcella in Later the Same Evening, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, Despina in Così fan tutte, Lisette in La Rondine, Almirena in Rinaldo, and the title role in Rameau’s Zéphyre with UNT Opera Theatre, Chicago Summer Opera, and Concerto Urbano Baroque Ensemble.

In concert, Nini has performed as a Gläubige Seele in Handel’s Brockes Passion (Bach Society Houston), the title role in Charpentier’s Esther (Denton Bach Society), Soprano Soloist in György Ligeti Aventures (NOVA Ensemble), as well as a number of works by J.S. Bach including St. John Passion, Magnificat, BWV 150, BWV 96, and BWV 80. During the 2019–2020 season, she was engaged to make her debut with Fort Worth Symphony as the soprano soloist in St. John Passion, which was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19. She has been presented as a recitalist with Dallas Bach Society and The Puccini Society of Dallas.

Ms. Marchese has received 1st place in the Soirée Lyrique Vocal Competition, was winner of the Thomas J. Smith Scholarship Competition, and a national finalist at the New York Lyric Opera Theatre Competition. An Illinois native, Nini attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for her Bachelor of Music degree. She recently earned both a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Artist Certificate from the University of North Texas.