Lyric-coloratura soprano Diana Aivia began her musical training with 10 years in the Seattle Girls' Choir, and performed several roles with the Seattle Opera and Seattle Symphony. She appeared on the Naxos American Opera Classics Recording of Merry Mount as Love Brewster with the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz.
She completed her undergraduate degree in music and linguistics at Antioch College in the US, studying Italian, French, German, and Russian, and performing Belinda, Rosina, Adina, and Gilda with the Yellow Springs Orchestra.
She then continued her studies in Florence with maestro Bruno Rigacci on scholarship from the Italian Cultural Institute, and attended master classes with Shirley Verrett at the Accademia Chigiana.
She studied in Prague with soprano Nancy Henninger and sang regularly with the Charles University Orchestra and the Muses Trio. In 2014 she completed her Master’s degree in classical vocal performance at The Royal Conservatory of Ghent, where she appeared as Ismene in Mitridate in 2013 and as The Governess in Britten's The Turn of the Screw in 2014. In 2015 appeared as Glinda the Good Witch in Brussels Light Opera Company's The Wizard of Oz.
In 2015, she created the concept of Diva Synesthesia, combination tasting-concerts where each song is paired with a corresponding chocolate, wine, or cocktail. In this way, she involves her audiences actively in the music and shares opera in a fuller and more personal way. In this capacity she performed at Chocoa, the most important artisanal chocolate festival in Europe, and is scheduled to sing at several chocolate festivals around the world in 2019 and 2020.
Photo: Chantal Waeterloos