Soprano Diba
Alvi both a singer and scholar. She has
quickly gained recognition for her beautiful voice and dynamic stage presence.
She has received critical acclaim for both her operatic roles and concert
performances. For her debut concert with Pittsburgh Opera in Samuel Ramey and Friends the
Pittsburgh Tribune Review said: “From her first note in Musetta’s
Waltz from La Boheme, soprano Diba Alvi commanded the stage
with stellar vocalism and a sharply dramatic personality…selections by Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro) on
the second half were exquisite…”
Most recently Ms. Alvi debuted with the Central Maryland Chorale
singing the soprano solo in Orff’s Carmina
Burana. She also debuted with the Handel
Choir of Baltimore singing the Baltimore premiere of The Song of the Shulamite by
Donald McCoullough. She also sang the soprano solo in
the Stein arrangement of Mahler’s Symphony
#4 with Inscape Orchestra. In the summer of 2015 Ms. Alvi also
joined the faculty of E.P.C.A.S.O.
(The Ezio Pinza Council for American Singers of Opera) in
Italy and will return there this summer.
In the 2011-2012 season she debuted with Inscape Chamber
Orchestra (MD), singing Zemlinsky’s Maiblumen blüten überall. She then debuted with Owensboro
Symphony Orchestra in Kentucky singing the soprano solo in Poulenc’s Gloria. During the
summer Ms. Alvi returned to the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh to where she
reprised her role of First Lady in The
Magic Flute in OPT’s Summerfest.
Ms. Alvi began the 2010-2011 season as a featured soloist in
Johnstown Symphony Orchestra’s annual Opera Festival. In October she sang the
role of the Jungfrau in a rare performance of Schumann’s oratorio Das Paradies
und die Peri during the Schumann Festival at the University
Maryland. Next Ms. Alvi sang the role of Euridice in Gluck’s Orpheus and Euridice with
Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.
The 2009-2010 season included a recital of baroque arias and
duets with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh in the Carnegie Museum’s Hall of
Architecture, Messiah with
Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen at the
University of Maryland as part of “America Sings in the Nation’s Capital 2010,
A Festival of American Music for the Voice.”
During the 2008-2009 season, she gave her debut concert with the
Johnson City (Tennessee) Symphony Orchestra in a program entitled An Evening with Diba Alvi and
then reprised her role of Adele in Die
Fledermaus with the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, for which the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described her as “spectacular, alluring and impressive”
and “stealing the show.” She performed in concert with Grammy Award winner
Michele Pertusi at the Pittsburgh Opera in April.
Additional engagements this season included Tonina
in Prima la musica e poi le parole and Nella in Gianni Schicchi, both with
Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.
Highlights of the 2007-2008 season include Ms. Alvi performing
the role of Miss Warblewell in The Impresario in
November and Adele in Die
Fledermausin
December, both with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. She performed Miss Warblewell again in January 2008 in conjunction with the
Frick Fine Art Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, in a music/art collaboration entitled “The Impresario and the
Entrepreneurs.”
Other operatic engagements include the roles of Woglinde, Helmwige and the Forest
Bird in the Bi-coastal premiere of Jonathan Dove’s adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Saga (Long Beach
Opera and Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, 2005-2006), Catherine in A View from the Bridge (Opera
Theater of Pittsburgh, 2004), Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (Opera Theater of
Pittsburgh, 2002-2004), Valencienne
in The Merry Widow (Palm
Beach Opera, 2003), First Lady in The
Magic Flute (Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, 2002), Ines in
Donizetti’s La Favorita (Opera Orchestra of New York,
2001) and Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera (Palm Beach Opera,
2000.).
Additional concert engagements include Handel’s Messiah (Johnstown
Symphony Orchestra, 2006), New
Music in Motion (University of Pittsburgh, 2005),
and Vivaldi’s Gloria (3
Rivers Concert Society, 2004).
Ms. Alvi completed her doctoral studies at the University of
Maryland, where she was the recipient of the Robert McCoy Graduate
Assistantship Award. In addition to singing, she is currently on faculty at the
Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University and the University of
Maryland.