# Cynthia Makris

Cynthia Makris is an American soprano opera singer as well as a voice and empowerment coach.

## Early life and education

Makris was born in Sterling, Colorado, USA, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Music Performance from Adams State College. Cynthia also has a degree in Interior Design from Palm Beach State College.

## Opera Singer and Voice Coach

Cynthia Makris brings 30 years of experience singing major operatic roles in the leading opera houses of the world to her voice coaching. Her vast repertoire ranges from bel canto to dramatic, from Bellini, Donizetti, and Mozart to Verdi, Richard Strauss, and Wagner. Her career brought her to the stages of the world, including La Scala, Covent Garden, and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. She has lived and worked in nearly every country in Europe, as well as Japan, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Argentina. Makris has been praised not only for the beauty of her voice but also for the integrity, honesty, and depth of her portrayals of figures as diverse as Puccini’s fragile title heroine, Madama Butterfly, to Verdi’s Lady Macbeth or Strauss’ Salome, which she has performed over three hundred times on five continents.
Cynthia is multilingual and has sung in many languages. This, along with her knowledge of musical styles, makes her an ideal coach for the serious classical student. She also specializes in preparing young people for auditions and building the foundation for their vocal technique. Her students have been accepted into the prestigious Bak Middle School for the Arts and the Dreyfoos High School for the Arts, as well as receiving college scholarships to pursue degrees in vocal music.
Cynthia has been coaching singers since 2007. She has a B.A. in Music Performance and is a certified life coach and master practitioner of NLP. She is a very demanding teacher and expects her students to have a high demand of themselves. Understanding that the voice is a very intimate part of a person’s makeup, she is also very compassionate and positive and always on the side of the student, empowering at all times. Ms. Makris teaches a natural and healthy approach to developing the voice, using the body’s own resonance chambers. It is especially important for children, whose voices are still developing, to learn a natural style of singing which will support the still maturing voice and not put unnecessary strain on the vocal chords. Classical Italian techniques uncover the natural beauty of each voice. The goal is an instrument which is integrated in all registers, which is capable of a wide variety of expression and has both power and beauty throughout.

## Career

Makris has sung major soprano roles at La Scala and the Royal Opera House, the Finnish National Opera and many other opera houses. She has performed in Europe, South America, and Asia. Her repertoire ranges from coloratura to dramatic roles including the title role in Salome by Richard Strauss. For Opera Queensland she sang Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco in 2007 and Turandot in 2008.
Her first professional role was as Tosca with the Denver Lyric Opera Company.

## Awards

Makris won the Metropolitan Opera Regional award for young singers as well the San Francisco Opera Regional award two consecutive years during her graduate studies in vocal performance at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
She received an award in 1982 from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia for her performance of the three heroines in The Tales of Hoffmann.
She was Artist of the Year of the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2006, an award for her contribution to the festival since 1993, when she sang Lady Macbeth in Ralf Långbacka [fi]'s televised production of Verdi's opera.

## Personal life

Cynthia is married to Finnish tenor, Raimo Sirkiä and has a son, Pete Makris, who lives in Colorado. She lives in Florida, USA, and in Helsinki, Finland.

## Repertoire

| Composer | Opera | Role | Opera Company / Partial List |
| Beethoven | Fidelio | Leonore | Finnish National Opera |
| Bellini | Norma | Norma | Finnish National Opera Opera of Philadelphia Badisches Staatstheater |
| Berg | Lulu | Lulu | Staatsoper Hannover |
| Berg | Wozzeck | Marie | Teatro Municipal de Santiago Badisches Staatstheater |
| Brand | Maschinist Hopkins | Nell | Theater Bielefeld ORF Concert & Recording, Wien |
| Donizetti | Anna Bolena | Anna | Finnish National Opera Badisches Staatstheater |
| Donizetti | Lucia di Lammermoor | Lucia | Theater Bielefeld Opernhaus Dortmund |
| Giordano | Andrea Chénier | Maddalena | Aalto Theater Essen |
| Korngold | Die tote Stadt | Marie/Marietta | Deutsche Oper am Rhein Teatro Colón Buenos Aires Royal Swedish Opera Teatro Bellini Catania Opera Antwerpen |
| Krenek | Jonny spielt auf | Anita | Teatro Colón Buenos Aires |
| Leoncavallo | La Bohème | Mimi | Theater Bielefeld |
| Moore | The Ballad of Baby Doe | Baby Doe | Theater Bielefeld |
| Mozart | Don Giovanni | Donna Anna | Theater Bielefeld Opernhaus Dortmund |
| | | Donna Elvira | University of Colorado |
| Mozart | Die Entführung aus dem Serail | Constanze | Theater Freiburg Saarländisches Staatstheater |
| Mozart | Le Nozze di Figaro | La Contessa | Niederlandse Reisopera |
| Mozart | Die Zauberflöte | Pamina | Theater Freiburg |
| Offenbach | Les contes d’Hoffman | Olympia Antonia Giulietta | Theater Bielefeld Niederlandse Reisopera Opernhaus Dortmund |
| Puccini | La fanciulla del West | Minnie | Finnish National Opera Teatro Regio Torino Grange Park Opera |
| Puccini | Madama Butterfly | Cio-Cio San | Opéra de Rouen Utah Opera |
| Puccini | Manon Lescaut | Manon | Theater Bielefeld Staatsoper Berlin |
| Puccini | Tosca | Tosca | Denver Lyric Opera Badisches Staatstheater Finnish National Opera Opéra-Comique Paris Deutsche Oper Berlin |
| Puccini | Turandot | Turandot | Savonlinna Opera Festival Teatro Argentino de la Plata Teatro Colón Buenos Aires Auditorio National Mexico City Esplanade Singapore Queensland Opera Welsh National Opera |
| Schreker | Irrelohe | Eva | Theater Bielefeld |
| Smetana | The Bartered Bride | Marie | Theater Bielefeld |
| Spohr | Faust | Kunigunde | Theater Bielefeld |
| Johann Strauss | Die Fledermaus | Rosalinde | Opernhaus Dortmund Staatsoper Berlin |
| Johann Strauss | Der Zigeunerbaron | Saffi | Theater Freiburg |
| Richard Strauss | Arabella | Arabella | Opernhaus Dortmund New National Theatre Tokyo |
| Richard Strauss | Ariadne auf Naxos | Najade | Theater Freiburg |
| Richard Strauss | Die Frau ohne Schatten | Die Kaiserin | Theater Bielefeld Finnish National Opera |
| Richard Strauss | Der Friedenstag | Maria | Concert Version Germany |
| Richard Strauss | Elektra | Elektra | Tiroler Festspiele Erl Theater Freiburg |
| Richard Strauss | Salome | Salome | Opernhaus Dormund Australian Opera New National Theatre Tokyo Opera of Philadelphia Finnish National Opera Opéra national du Rhin Teatro municipal Rio de Janeiro Staatsoper Berlin Bayerische Staatsoper Teatro Nacional de São Carlos Royal Swedish Opera Scottish Opera |
| Verdi | Aida | Aida | Estonian National Opera |
| Verdi | Un ballo in maschera | Amelia | Opernhaus Dortmund Opéra de Rouen Semperoper Dresden |
| Verdi | Falstaff | Alice Ford | University of Colorado |
| Verdi | La forza del destino | Leonora | Badisches Staatstheater Savonlinna Opera Festival |
| Verdi | Luisa Miller | Luisa | Theater Bielefeld |
| Verdi | Macbeth | Lady Macbeth | Savonlinna Opera Festival Teatro Colón Buenos Aires Theater Bonn Teatro alla Scala Milano |
| Verdi | Nabucco | Abigaille | Estonian National Opera Royal Opera Covent Garden Queensland Opera |
| Verdi | Otello | Desdemona | Opernhaus Dortmund |
| Verdi | La traviata | Violetta | Oper Graz Theater Freiburg Deutsche Oper am Rhein Badisches Staatstheater Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Theater Bielefeld Opera Corpus Christi Staatsoper Berlin |
| Verdi | Il trovatore | Leonora | Opernhaus Dortmund Finnish National Opera Teatro Municipal de São Paulo Teatro Colón Buenos Aires Opera Leipzig Royal Danish Opera |
| Wagner | Der fliegende Holländer | Senta | Theater Bonn Tampere Opera Musikfestival Wels |
| Wagner | Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg | Eva | Opernhaus Dortmund |
| Wagner | Das Rheingold | Freia | Theater Freiburg |
| Wagner | Tannhäuser | Venus, Elisabeth Venus | Savonlinna Opera Festival Teatro Real Madrid |
| Weber | Der Freischütz | Agathe | Theater Bielefeld |
| Weill | Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny | Jenny | Theater Bielefeld Operahaus Dortmund |
| Zandonai | Francesca da Rimini | Francesca | Teatro Colón Buenos Aires |