Orlanda Velez Isidro

Orlanda Velez Isidro (born 6 March 1972) is a Portuguese classically trained coloratura soprano. Her preferred genre of music is Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. Since completing her education in Portugal and the Netherlands, she has lived and performed in the Netherlands.

Career Orlanda Velez Isidro was born on 6 March 1972 in Évora, Portugal, and began her musical studies at age seven studying piano and violin. She started vocal training at the with Maria Repas Gonçalves. Between 1992 and 1997, Velez sang in the Gulbenkian Choir of Lisbon. She graduated with a degree in musicology in 1997, and moved to the Netherlands.

At the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Velez studied with Rita Dams and Lenie van den Heuvel and was trained in repertoire by Jill Feldman, Meinard Kraak and Marius van Altena, graduating in 2000. She has continued her studies in master classes by Elly Ameling, Jill Feldman, Diane Forlano, Ronald Kleekamp, Barbara Pierson, Jennifer Smith, Nico van der Meel and Rolande van der Paal. In 2001, she participated in the "Concours International de Chant Baroque de Chimay-Belgique" and won the third prize. She has performed as a soloist with Eduardo Lopez Banzo; Frans Brüggen in Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream; Michel Corboz with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir; Ton Koopman and The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir in several programs of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Claudio Monteverdi; William Christie in the project Ambronay 98 and the project Le Jardin des Voix with Les Arts Florissants and Fredrik Malmberg and the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester.

On the opera stage, Velez was Miss Jessel in Britten's The Turn of the Screw under conductor Brad Cowen, Her personal preference for repertoire is Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary music. She regularly performs recitals of baroque music with groups such as De Swaen, Ensemble Udite Amanti, The Kassiopeia Quintet, Musica Temprana, and Segréis de Lisboa.