Maria Jose Siri was born in Uruguay. She studied piano and had made a name for herself as an accomplished accompanist when she decided to study the saxophone, so she bought one and enrolled at the Escuela Municipal de Mъsica in Montevideo. By mistake she ended up at a singing class instead of an ear training one. The teacher asked her to vocalize and her life changed. In 2001 she won the Ars Lyrica Competition in Montevideo, and used the First Prize money to travel to Europe and try her luck. She entered the International Voice Competition in Andorra, and although she did not make the semi finals, she caught the attention of a member of the jury, Ileana Cotrubas, who was in the process of selecting 4 of the voices in the competition to give a series of master classes. Maria Jose was chosen and since then the young Uruguayan became a protegee of Ms. Cotrubas, who offered her private lessons and lodging in her own home in Nice until now.
A recipient of several scholarships and winner of First Prizes in competitions such as Bilbao, Teatro Colуn of Buenos Aires, “Mattia Battistini” in Rieti, Italy, and “Accademia Musicale Umbra” in Perugia,”Manuel Ausenci” in Teatro del Liceu- Spain , “Competizione dell Spera” SemperOper-Dresden.
Maria Jose Siri started her professional career singing with the Sodre Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Montevideo, Uruguay, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Buenos Aires. She participated in the opera seasons of Teatro Avenida, Teatro Astral and Teatro Colуn in Buenos Aires singing the roles of Violetta in “La Traviata”, Micaela in “Carmen”, Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni”, Mimi in “La Boheme”, Gilda in “Rigoletto” and Elisetta in “Il Matrimonio Segreto”.
She returned to Teatro Colon during the 2005 season to sing Verdi’s Requiem and in Madrid sings a Gala Concert with the Orchestra of RTV of Spain.
Maria Jose Siri sang Countess of “Nozze di Figaro” in a tournee in Spain with Sabadell’s Company. In her country sang a” Deutsch Requiem” in Solis Theater. She participated as Mimi –Boheme in the theaters Solis-Montevideo and Argentino de La Plata.
In 2006 she opened the season of Colon of Buenos Aires as Musetta-Boheme and Teatro Argentino de La Plata as Leonora-Trovatore with great critics.
She made several concerts promoving the uruguayan music in Treviso, Rome, Munich, Koln and Dresden.
She made her debut in the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile as Leonora – Trovatore. She returned to her country to sing Violetta –Traviata in Teatro Solis of Montevideo and to Teatro Argentino de La Plata as Countess of “Nozze di Figaro”.
In 2007 she sang “La Traviata” (Violetta) and Verdi’s Requiem at Teatro Colon of Buenos Aires, the last one with great success. She returned to the theatres “Argentino de La Plata” and “Solis de Montevideo” as Micaela (Carmen).
She participated in the prestigious Rheingau Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany with WDR Koln Orchestra. She made her Italian debut with “Le Villi” of Puccini as Anna , at “Teatro Sociale di Mantova” and ” Teatro Coccia di Novara.” Italy as well as in Teatro Sociale di Rovigo.
2008 started with a great concert in the Koln Operhaus again with WDR orchestra with Michail Juroswky as conductor.
In March she sang ”Il Trovatore” at Teatro Carlo Felice of Genova, Italy . In June she sang in Germany “La Boheme” as Mimi at SemperOper and in Mannheim too.
She also sang sopran voice of Verdi’s Requiem in the Berliner Philarmonie with 1500 singers as choir with the great conductor Simon Ashley.
Summer 2008 started withLaTraviata” in Sankt Margarethen Festival , Austria.
September 2008 was her big debut as Aida in the new production in Stuttgart Opernhaus and Aida again in the great Zeffirelli’s production at Teatro Massimo di Palermo.
2009 started with Zeffirelli’s production from “ I Pagliacci” at “Maggio Musicale Fiorentino” as Nedda and continued with the first collaboration in Teatro alla Scala di Milano as Lucrezia in “ I Due Foscari” from Verdi.
First collaboration with regisseur Graham Vick in “MItridate , Re di Ponto” from Mozart as Sifare happened in the famous Mozart Festival of La Coruсa, Spain.
Finally arrived the great debut at Teatro alla Scala di Milano” as Aida under Maestro Barenboim conducting and Zeffirelli‘s production. After that , in “Scala” tournee , Aida as well in Tel Aviv , Israel and in Tokyo, Japan .
France debut arrived in Soyrиes Lirique Festival in Sanxay , as Aida in the beautiful Roman Ruins of La Vienne. She continued as Aida in the revival performances of Stuttgarter StaasOper as well as Leonora in Il Trovatore.
2010 started with a very important debut as Rachel of La Juive -Halevy in Mikhailowski Theater of San Petersburg with the great production of Arnaud Bernard and famous tenor Neil Shicoff as Eleazar.
Siri made the innauguration of Festival Mozart of La Coruсa, Spain with Verdi’s Requiem with a great concert also in San Sebastian with Filarmonic Orchestra of Galicia.
Another great debut will in 2010 is the role of Floria Tosca in teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Italy. She is invited to play Aida in Bregenzer Festpiele, Austria in the great Graham Vick’s production.
Upcoming engagements are Aida in Maggio Musicale Fiorentino’s Theatre with Zubin Mehta. I due Foscari in Teatro Verdi of Trieste with Renato Palumbo and Tosca in Savonlinna Festival.
from http://www.mariajosesiri.com