Thereza Dinorah Lituma
Chicago native, Thereza Lituma, has been hailed for singing with "sweeping emotive power" and "appealing conviction". Ms. Lituma is a recent alumna of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Music where she earned multiple degrees in Vocal Performance under the tutelage of Professor Sylvia Stone. While attending the School of Music, she performed in numerous operas with Lyric Theatre at Illinois including Cherubino/Le Nozze di Figaro, Mrs. Grose/Turn of the Screw, Lucretia/The Rape of Lucretia, Agent Dolores Reyes/The Last American Hammer, and The Owl/The Cunning Little Vixen.
Most recently, Ms. Lituma performed as the mezzo-soloist/Symphony No. 5 (Harbison) alongside the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Baritone, Nathan Gunn, and in the presence of the composer himself. In her recent 2021-22 season, she also debuted the role of Kate/Pirates of Penzance with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Peter Stafford Wilson, covered Alto Soloist/Child of Our Time (Tippett) with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andrew Megill, and won first runner up in the Krannert Debut Artist Competition.
An active concert soloist, she was also seen as the alto soloist in Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Haydn's Missa Sancti Hieronymi (UIUC Oratorio Society), the alto soloist in Handel's Messiah (First United Methodist Church in Urbana), and the contralto soloist in Ustvolskaya’s Symphony No. 4 with the Illinois Modern Ensemble. Ms. Lituma is a professional member of the prestigious Grant Park Chorus. She made her Grant Park debut as a Grant Park Music Festival Project Inclusion Voice Fellow, where she had the opportunity to perform as a soloist in multiple Chicago summer concert series including the Night Out in the Parks recitals and a Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert at the Chicago Cultural Center. Ms. Lituma returned to the festival as a soloist at the Advocate for the Arts Awards 2019 Gala and as a supplemental chorus member.
Ms. Lituma has been the recipient of numerous awards including the American Prize in Vocal Performance, Sara de Lo Mundo Award, Elizabeth Meier Frauenhoffer Memorial Award in Music, the Edmund Plaszczykowski Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Music, Aspire Graduate Fellowship, the Theodore Presser Foundation Scholarship in Music, the T. J. Smith Scholarship Competition, the Mary Mottl Memorial Scholarship, the Division Achievement Award in Music Education, the Sigma Alpha Iota Summer Music Scholarship, the Judy Riemenschneider Marderosian Memorial Music Scholarship, and the Mary Payne Performance Award. At the 2020 Classical Singer Music Vocal Competition, she was praised by Frederica von Stade for singing with "beautiful colors and a clear lovely sound."
Ms. Lituma is the proud daughter of South American immigrants. In her spare time, she enjoys twirling her baton, drinking bubble tea, and writing/composing her first chamber opera.
Thereza Lituma as Agent Reyes / The Last American Hammer (2020).
