Nadia Petrella – soprano (website)

Nadia Petrella, an Ottawa native and resident, is currentl;y pursuing a Master's Degree in Performance at The Manhattan School Of Music, where she works with renowned soprano Catherine Malfitano. Nadia holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Carleton University, where she was a student of local tenor David MacAdam.

Operatically, Nadia has performed roles including Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (2007) and Soeur Constance in Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmelites (2007), Lola in Douglas Moore's Gallantry and Catherine in Ralph Vaughn Williams's Riders to the Sea (OPO, 2008), Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville The Mother in Menoti's Amahl and the Night Visitors (OPO, 2008), and The First Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute (OPO, 2009). In her American debut in a Nickel City Opera (Buffalo, NY, June 2009) production of the Rossini The Barber of Seville , she was described by Buffalo News critic Mary Kunz Goldman as a "world-class Rosina - beautiful and funny. Her high notes were as clear as bells, her demanding lines dazzling. [She] projected humor and ease." Future engagements include Michaela in Bizet's Carmen, for Pellegrini Opera in May 2011, and OPO again in June 2011.

On the concert stage, Nadia has appeared as guest soloist for Musica Viva and the Carleton University Choir on several occasions, singing works such as the Vivaldi Gloria , Fauré Requiem and Zelenka. In April of 2008, she won second prize in the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra Vocal Competition, and she has twice been the guest soloist for the Celebration of Life, held annually during Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness week. She has also appeared locally in Ottawa in solo recitals and as a guest on solo recitals of others.

In June, 2009, Nadia won the OMFA Ontario Provincial Vocal Competition for the second time, advancing to the FCMF National Music Festival in Saskatoon, SK (August), where she placed third in the Vocal Division, becoming the first from the National Capital Region to do so in many years. Along with being a regular participant at the Kiwanis Music Festival, where she been fortunate to be a repeat scholarship recipient, she has also participated in other competitions such as the Quebec/Ontario Festival of Youth & Music, where she won the open classical trophy (2005).