Laura Santamaria (she/her) is a Colombian-American soprano from West Palm Beach, Florida, currently based in New York City, where she is a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera.

 

As a member of the program, Laura will make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Papagena in The Magic Flute: Holiday Presentation. During the 2025–26 season, she will also cover the roles of Pousette in Manon and Zaubermädchen II/I in Parsifal. In October, she will appear as the soprano soloist in Poulenc’s Gloria with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra.

 

In summer 2026, Laura joined the Glimmerglass Festival as a Resident Artist, performing the role of Lucy in Fellow Travelers. She was also a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in both 2024 and 2025, where she performed Peaseblossom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and covered Norina in Don Pasquale. During her time with the company, she also covered Musetta in La bohème and Berta in The Barber of Seville, and appeared as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance through the company's Opera on the Go outreach program.

 

Laura was an Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera during the 2024–25 season, appearing in Macbeth, Vanessa, and The Daughter of the Regiment, and performing the role of Marie in the company's workshop and touring production. In the summer of 2025, she was selected as a fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, where she appeared in Schubert on the Road, a curated recital led by Graham Johnson. That same year, she appeared as the soprano soloist in Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and in Song of Hope by Florence Price with Back Bay Chorale. Additional concert appearances include Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at Boston Symphony Hall with the Boston Conservatory Inauguration Symphony in 2023.

 

Laura is a two-time recipient of the Richard Gaddes Career Award from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and was named a 2024 Florida District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. In 2025, she was a semifinalist in the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition and received the Award for Best Performance of a Contemporary Work at the Calliope's Call Young Singer Competition.

 

Laura is a proud alumna of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she earned both a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance with an Opera Emphasis and a Master of Music in Opera Performance. She currently studies with Rebecca Folsom. A passionate advocate for her Latin American heritage, Laura enjoys performing art songs by composers including Jaime León Ferro, María Grever, and Alberto Ginastera.