Carlos Zapién

Performance Year: 2019, 2021

Carlos Zapién is a Tucson-based musician, singer, pianist, cultural manager and composer.

Zapién was born in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. He studied piano and organ at the Conservatorio de Las Rosas in Morelia, Michoacán. In 2004 he obtained a degree in music from the University of Oregon, where he studied piano with Victor Steinhardt and singing with Eric Mentzel. He later obtained a master’s degree at the same university in 2006. He also obtained the degree of Soloist at the University of Music and Performing Arts of Stuttgart, Germany, under the tutelage of tenor Francisco Araiza and soprano Dunja Vejzović.

While at the University of Oregon, he was a member of the Oregon Opera Ensemble. In 2007 he debuted in Europe playing Count Belfiore in La finta giardiniera, with the Thuringia Philharmonic at the Ekhof Festival. In 2009, Carlos Zapién was named Artist-in-Residence at the Opera Studio of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. He has sung in his native Mexico, as well as in other countries such as Austria, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and the United States of America and has collaborated with outstanding conductors.

In collaboration with pianist and arranger Alexander Pashkov, Carlos Zapién recorded a bolero album entitled Siempre Mía. He recently proposed a new interpretation of the Gregorian chant in an album titled The Beauty of Gregorian Chant.