Adriana Zabala
As a vocal artist, teacher, mentor, and arts leader, I am shaped by the transformative power of creative expression. Rooted in careful attention to context, form, language, and interpretation, I seek to inspire imagination and meaningful connection among artists and audiences. As Assistant Dean of Collaborative Arts, I cultivate spaces where disciplines converge and new possibilities emerge. Through the courses I teach, I invite students to seek resonances between music, literature, visual arts, and beyond, to awaken curiosity, nurture insight and expertise, and spark limitless cultural discovery and expression.
Adriana Zabala
Praised by the New York Times as “a vivid, fearless presence” and by the Los Angeles Times as “an extraordinary, vibrant” mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala is an internationally active vocal artist whose work bridges traditional and contemporary repertoire. She enjoys a dynamic career across opera, concert, oratorio, recording, and recital.
Zabala currently serves as Associate Professor of Music and the inaugural Assistant Dean of Collaborative Arts at the Yale School of Music. As Assistant Dean, she cultivates interdisciplinary projects that connect performers, scholars, and collections across the university, including partnerships with the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale Center for British Art, the Yale Peabody Museum, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. She is also cofounder of the Yale Song Lab, an initiative devoted to exploring the expressive and intellectual possibilities of art song.
Previously, Zabala served as associate professor of voice at the University of Minnesota, where she taught graduate and undergraduate students, served as chair of the voice division at the School of Music, and created and led the annual global seminar Vive les Arts! in Paris. She gives frequent master classes and serves as an adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. She is also a member of the faculty of SongFest, and has been named a Distinguished Vocal Artist of The American Prize.
Zabala earned a bachelor of music degree from Louisiana State University and a master of music degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She studied Lieder as a Fulbright Scholar at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst "Mozarteum" in Salzburg, Austria and is an alumna of the apprentice programs at the Minnesota Opera, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera Company.
Selected performances
Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Tenerife, and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New Jersey Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Carnegie Hall, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, New York Festival of Song.
Mina Fisher’s Nadia (Premiere), Christopher Theofanidis’s Siddhartha, She, Kevin Puts’s The Manchurian Candidate (Premiere), Philip Glass’s Waiting for the Barbarians (US Premiere), Jonathon Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (US Premiere), William Bolcom’s Dinner at 8 (Premiere), Doug Cuomo’s Doubt (Premiere) Steven Mark Kohn’s The Trial of Susan B. Anthony (Premiere), Robert Aldridge’s Sister Carrie (Premiere).
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