Maya Sypert
Festival Artist / Mezzo-Soprano
Praised for her outstanding artistry, “vocal beauty of high technical caliber,” “vocal flare and flamenco abandon,” and “gifted storytell[ing],” mezzo-soprano Maya (Hoover) Sypert has appeared on stages throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and China. Her engagements include concerts with renowned soprano Sumi Jo and the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra; Fauré Requiem (Morris Choral Society, New Jersey); Brahms Alto Rhapsody (Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, Colorado); Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (GPO, HSO, and Bellingham Festival of Music); Verdi Requiem (Tuscia Operafestival, Italy); Mozart Requiem (Orquesta Sinfónico de Trujillo, Perú; Honolulu and Kona, Hawai‘i); Handel Messiah (Maui Chamber Orchestra); Falla El sombrero de tres picos (HSO); The Magic Flute (Second Lady), Il Trovatore (Inez), and Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reeds's Hometown to the World (Linda Morales) with Hawai‘i Opera Theatre; Madama Butterfly (Suzuki) with Opera Ft. Collins; Carmen (Mercédès) at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center (NJ); and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (Chamber Music Hawai‘i) in a production staged by Henry Akina. In 2018, she was the featured artist for the Art Song Preservation Society of New York’s summer festival at the Manhattan School of Music in a program of all Latin American art songs with her musical partner of more than twenty years, pianist José Meléndez. In 2023, they return to the stage together for an all-Italian program on behalf of the Friends of Italy Society of Hawaii.
Other international appearances include Festival Mozart y Beethoven, Festival Internacional Bach, and Festimúsica Internacional (Peru); Songs Across the Americas Festival (Bolivia); Bellingham Festival of Music; Bloomington Early Music Festival; Escuela de Artes Musicales, Universidad de Costa Rica; Auditorio Fabio Lozano (Bogotá, Colombia); and Teatro Municipal (Trujillo, Peru). As a recitalist, she has performed regularly with José Meléndez for over two decades in innovative programs frequently highlighting Latin American, Spanish, and other outstanding lesser-known works.
She holds a Doctor of Music degree in Voice Performance and Literature with a minor in Music Education from Indiana University, a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, and a Bachelor of Music degree with a minor in Italian Language and Literature from Binghamton University. She has studied with Mary Burgess, Laura Brooks Rice, Patricia Havranek, Virginia Zeani, and she currently studies with Andrea DelGiudice. Her publications have appeared in Classical Singer, The Mentoring Connection, Philosophy of Music Education Review, and the Choral Journal, and she is the author/editor of Guide to the Latin American Art Song Repertoire: An Annotated Catalog of Twentieth-Century Art Songs for Voice and Piano (Indiana University Press). In August 2007, she joined the distinguished faculty of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she serves as Professor of Music and Undergraduate Chair in Music with a world-class faculty.