Ailyn Perez Stars in LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER's Broadcast of 2012 Richard Tucker Gala Tonight

Soprano Ailyn Pérez, winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award, was fresh from a string of European appearances, including her Bolshoi Theater debut and performances at the Hamburg State Opera, when she lit up the stage at New York's Avery Fisher Hall at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala on November 11. The gala was filmed for national broadcast in the U.S. as part of the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center series on PBS and will air tonight, December 13. Live from Lincoln Center: The Richard Tucker Opera Gala, which is being hosted by singer and actress Audra McDonald, will include a feature on Pérez, backstage access to the artists, and selections from the musical performance.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Pérez flew to Florida immediately after the gala to continue rehearsing for La bohème. The production opened the Florida Grand Opera season just six days later, on November 17, to rave reviews.

Pérez will return to Hamburg State Opera to sing the role of Violetta in a new production of La traviata (Feb 17-March 19) by cutting-edge German director Johannes Erath, whose recent stagings include Massenet's Cendrillon in Bern, Peter Eötvös's Angels in America for Oper Frankfurt, and Orfeo ed Euridice and Aida at Cologne Opera. Last season, Pérez stepped in for a performance as Violetta at Covent Garden, a role she performed there earlier in the season, opposite her husband, tenor Stephen Costello, on two days' notice.

In March, Pérez travels to Austria to take on Donizetti's impetuous Adina in Otto Schenk's production of L'elisir d'amore at the Vienna State Opera, opposite the Nemorino of Costello (March 1-8). She stays in Europe for her much-anticipated debut at England's storied Glyndebourne Festival this summer as Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff. These Glydebourne performances also mark her role debut as one of the objects of Sir John Falstaff's mis-guided affection. Mark Elder conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and a cast that also features Laurent Naouri in the title role, Roman Burdenko as Ford, and Lucia Cirillo as Meg Page. The production, by Richard Jones, debuted at Glyndebourne in 2009 to rave reviews and was released on DVD by Opus Arte.

Ailyn Pérez is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts, Philadelphia and of Indiana University. In addition to winning the 2012 Richard Tucker Award, she is a recipient of the George London Foundation's Leonie Rysanek Award, a 2007 winner of a Shoshana Foundation Career Grant, placed second in the 2006 Plácido Domingo Operalia competition, and was previously lauded by the Loren L. Zachary Foundation, Opera Index and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation.

For more about Perez, visit ailynperez.com or follow her on Twitter: twitter.com/AilynPerez1 and Facebook: www.facebook.com/AilynPerezSoprano.