Maren Montalbano began her vocal career with the San Francisco Girls Chorus at age seven, and has been singing ever since. A graduate of both New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University, Ms. Montalbano sang in the historic world premiere of John Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning work, On the Transmigration of Souls, which was later released into a Grammy Award-winning CD. She recorded Douglas Cuomo’s opera Arjuna’s Dilemma with Anonymous 4 members Susan Hellauer and Jacqueline Horner, which was released in 2008 to critical acclaim.  Other commercial recordings include Alice Parker’s Listen Lord and The Family Reunion, Kile Smith’s Vespers, and The Crossing’s debut solo album, It is time. In the spring of 2009, her solo in Copland’s In The Beginning was praised as “excellent” by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In the 2009-10 season, Ms. Montalbano performed the role of Testo in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, made her Opera Company of Philadelphia debut as Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, performed Haydn’s Theresienmesse with the Drexel Symphony Orchestra, and gave the world premiere of Jeremy Gill’s song cycle Helian in her Philadelphia recital debut. The 2010-11 season included Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder (Delaware County Symphony), Verdi’s Requiem (Lancaster Symphony Orchestra), Elijah (Philadelphia Biblical University), Mozart’s Requiem (Reading Choral Society), and Britten’s Abraham and Isaac (Choral Arts Philadelphia). She will open the 2011-12 season for Lyric Fest with its first foray into early music in a concert entitled “The Bawdy Bard.”

Ms. Montalbano lives in New Jersey and sings professionally throughout a wide geographic area with such groups as New York Choral Artists, Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Singers, and The Crossing. She holds the office of 4th Vice President of the American Guild of Musical Artists, and is passionate about keeping artists employed doing what they do best. She currently studies voice with Julianne Baird.