GRAMMY Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez makes her HGO directorial debut for HGO’s third annual Family Day Presents: The Magic Flute. From 2019 to 2024, Martínez served as HGO’s first-ever Artistic Advisor. Following a two-year appointment as Artist-in-Residence at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, in 2021 she became a Professor in the university’s Department of Voice. She is honored to have been named 2026 Texas State Musician-Classical and a 2021 recipient of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Hispanic Heritage Award in the Arts. Martínez has a storied history with HGO, performing roles including the Bridal Shop Owner in West Side Story (2025), Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly (2010, 2015), the title role in Carmen (2014), Marguerite in Faust (2016), and Florencia in Florencia en el Amazonas (2019). Her career highlights include Cio-Cio San and Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera; the title role in Rusalka at the Glyndebourne Festival and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; the title role in Luisa Miller and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera; Violetta in La traviata, Donna Elvira, and Cio-Cio San at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera; Donna Elvira at San Francisco Opera; Nedda in I Pagliacci, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Marguerite in Faust, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Rusalka at Lyric Opera of Chicago; Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Mimì, Violetta, Nedda, and the title role in Carmen at Los Angeles Opera; and her major roles with HGO.