An artistic daughter of the Niagara Region, Dr. Maria Vetere has, since age five, represented Southern Ontario from local, provincial, and national competitions to national and international performance stages worldwide. She is a “triple threat artist: “ not only a seasoned and brilliant performer in voice, piano, and concert accordion but a highly educated scholar and one of the most sought-after voice/opera pedagogues. Dr. Vetere was inducted into the Niagara Falls Cultural Wall of Fame for her global operatic and musical achievements in October 2021.
From a triumphant debut at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall in December 2019, Vetere’s performances garnered ecstatic ovations from International audiences. She has performed at the most prestigious performance venues in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, South America, and Europe and has quickly established herself as a world-class Italian soprano. In 2017, she received the highest honour of the NYIOP International Auditions for vocal excellence in a female voice internationally. In September of 2016, she “stole the show” in a Gala performance at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, where reviewer Michael Caruso said, “Her singing not only combined the tonal beauty of Renata Tebaldi with just a touch of Maria Callas’ cutting edge.” she has been lauded by some of the greatest personages in opera: Simonetta Puccini (the composer’s granddaughter), legendary opera conductor Maestro Richard Bonynge, the Fondazione Museo Renata Tebaldi, the Amici di Verdi in Busseto, Italy, as well as conductors and concert organizers on five continents.
Dr. Vetere has established, designed, and founded several prestigious and internationally renowned Summer Opera Programs in Italy. In 2017, she founded and became the General Director of Niagara’s first opera company, Opera Niagara, which features performers from all corners of the globe and seeks to bring the historic opera genre to the general public in an accessible and humanistic manner. In 2024, Vetere established Niagara’s first international opera festival as an extended branch of Opera Niagara. “The Opera Festival of Niagara.” As of 2024, the renowned Vetere Studio International has received global attention. The Bel Canto technique Dr. Vetere teaches to over 60 singers internationally became the subject of a feature article in Opera Canada Magazine Spring Issue 2020. She teaches successful singers across five continents who receive international awards and recognition and perform readily.
Academically, Dr. Vetere holds a PhD in Historical Musicology, an M.A. in Historical Musicology, and a Bachelor of Music in Piano and Voice Performance from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She has received numerous awards, accolades, and academic scholarships and has presented her research globally at musicological conferences, universities, conservatories, and in public lecture series. Her groundbreaking dissertation, Italian Opera from Verdi to Verismo: Boito and the Scapigliatura has been lauded as a seminal contribution to the historiography of Italian Opera.