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INTRODUCTION
With a voice described as “burnished metal” and praised for its clarity and warmth, Veena Akama-Makia is quickly becoming a standout name in the world of opera. The Cameroonian-Ugandan-American mezzo-soprano is currently captivating audiences as a Jette Parker Artist at the Royal Opera House, where her 2024–25 season includes roles in La Traviata, Carmen, and Il Trovatore. From major debuts to world premieres, Akama-Makia brings depth, elegance, and emotional resonance to every performance. In this interview, she reflects on her artistic path, her recent triumphs, and the drive behind her meteoric rise.
BIOGRAPHY
Cameroonian-Ugandan-American mezzo-soprano Veena Akama-Makia has been praised in the operatic world, for her voice like “burnished metal” (The Theatre Times) and for having a “sweet mezzo voice of clarity” (Operawire). Currently a Jette Parker Artist at the Royal Opera House, Veena continues to dazzle in her 2024-25 season with roles such as Annina in La Traviata, Mércèdes in Carmen, and Inès in Il Trovatore. She has also covered notable roles including La Voix and La Muse in Les Contes D’Hoffmann and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel. In the 2023-24 season, Akama-Makia made her house debut at the Royal Opera House, performing roles such as Giovanna in Rigoletto, Zweite Magd in Elektra, and Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. She also covered the roles of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Mary in Der fliegende Holländer, and Bersi in Andrea Chénier. This season also marked her Royal Philharmonic debut and role debut as Marta in a concert performance of Iolanta. Her past engagements include being an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, where she covered roles in Carmen and The Falling and Rising. Additionally, she was a standout at Chicago Opera Theater, debuting roles such as Tawny Betty in the world premiere of Quamino’s Map and Nancy in Albert Herring. In the summer of 2022, Veena was a Young Artist with San Francisco Opera’s renowned Merola Opera Program, where she portrayed Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte and earned praise for her solo performances in the Merola Grand Finale. An accomplished artist, Akama-Makia’s accolades include winning the 2023 American Opera Society of Chicago Best Vocal Artist Award, being a Finalist in the 2023 Butler International Opera Competition, a 2023 Annapolis Opera Voice Competition Semi-finalist, a 2022 & 2021 Encouragement Award Winner from The Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition-Illinois District, Semi-Finalist in the 2022 Irene Dalis Vocal Competition, Tier I Semi-Finalist in the James Toland Vocal Competition, a Finalist in the Jesse Kneisel Lieder Competition, a Finalist in the 2020 Mildred Miller Competition, Semi-Finalist in the 2020 Premiere Opera Foundation, and NYIOP International Competition, Semi-Finalist in the 2020 Rochester International Vocal Competition, Semi-Finalist in the 2021 Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition, and received 2nd place in the 2022 Musicians Club of Women Vocal Competition. Akama-Makia is an alumna of the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Program, the Chicago Opera Theater Young Artist Program, the Merola Opera Program, the Finger Lakes Opera’s Tomita Young Artist Program, and the Rochester Fringe Festival. She received her Master of Music in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music and earned her Bachelor of Music at the University of Central Arkansas.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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