Praised for her refined musicality, vocal eclecticism and beauty, enthralling stage presence, Monica Marziota is being hailed as one of the most promising young talents of the contemporary scene. Soprano, performer, pianist and composer, in 2017 she was awarded the prestigious Premio Lunezia.
Her repertoire reaches different vocal areas. She interprets Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Latin Classical Music, Jazz, Mediterranean, and her own compositions.
Graduated in Opera Singing at the Conservatorio di Musica di Santa Cecilia in Rome, under the direction of M° Anna Maria Ferrante, where she perfected with M° Luciano Dettori. She also studied with the distinguished opera singers: Adriana Morelli, Italian soprano who introduced her to the study of this art, and the mezzo-soprano Ambra Vespasiani at Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali G. Briccialdi in Terni. She continues her vocal training with the eminent Italian soprano Alda Caiello, specializing in the classical repertoire of the 20th century. Soon to be a graduate in Musicology at Sapienza Università di Roma with a thesis about the diffusion of Italian opera in Cuba and Central America in the eighteenth century, she is equally engaged in performing and research.
Cosmopolitan artist - she grew up mostly between Havana, Toronto and Rome - started playing the piano, singing and writing music from an early age. “Daughter of art”, she was born in Havana into a family of musicians and intellectuals, from a Cuban mother and an Italian father. Her maternal grandfather Julio Valdés Cobarde, singer, composer and conductor of Cuban folk music, was part of that golden generation of Cuban music represented by the Buena Vista Social Club.
She began her classical training at the age of six in her hometown, at the conservatories Alejandro García Caturla and Manuel Saumell where she studied piano with Prof. Bárbara Díaz Alea. At the age of seven she began to give concerts as a piano student, at the age of nine to compose for the instrument and with ten years old one of her compositions was awarded by the illustrious Cuban composer Harold Gramatges at the Festival de Habaneras convened by the Conservatorio M. Saumell . Later she graduated from Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán. She then attended jazz singing workshops at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada; she graduated from the Musical Theatre Academy in Rome, Italy, participating in an academic exchange with the Pineapple Academy of Performing Arts in London, England, where in addition to singing and acting, she studied ballet, jazz and tap dance.
Monica has had leading roles in various musicals, operas, operettas and has also worked as a solo artist. She has performed worldwide in numerous tours and significant stages in Italy, France, Austria, Spain, Cuba, Canada, USA, Argentina and Nigeria: Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; Auditorium della Conciliazione, Teatro Olimpico, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Aula Magna dell'Università La Sapienza, in Rome; Teatro Secci in Terni, Teatro Sociale di Amelia, Umbria; Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza, Teatro Salieri in Legnano, Veneto; Teatro della Luna in Milan; Teatro Alfieri in Torino; Maison de l'Amérique Latine in Paris; Volkstheater in Vienna; Colegiul National de Arte Regina Maria in Constanta; Port Harcourt Music Festival; Teatro Nacional de Cuba, Teatro de Bellas Artes, Sala Ignacio Cervantes, Basilica menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, in Havana.
She has worked with important names on the international music scene such as the BAFTA winner M° Andrea Morricone and the prestigious Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta. She interpreted and co-wrote part of the soundtrack of the Italian film Come non detto and several TV films for RAI alongside composer Leonardo Rosi, winner of Premio Davide di Donatello. She has participated in several albums and recorded her own compositions in New York with important musicians from the Big Apple jazz scene such as Carlos Cuevas, Mike Moreno, John Ellis, Israel Varela and Gilad Hekselman.
In art with the name of MoMå, she has created an intercultural musical project of European origin and an international vision: MoMå & the Minoses, in favor of beauty, courage, tolerance, fraternity between peoples and meeting of cultures. The MoMå & the Minoses project was presented June 21st 2017 on occasion of the World Music Day at Accademia Filarmonica Romana, within the review Musica como Acto de Resistencia which, starting in 2016, she herself has devised and directed.
Regularly invited to several international festivals, for her, the renowned Italian composer Girolamo Deraco wrote Canta Ally, canta!, a small contemporary opera that was world premiered at Festival Habana Clásica last November.