Cristina Piccardi

1981 -

Cristina Piccardi, award-winning singer, choir director, and teacher, has studied and performed extensively in the Americas, Europe, and the Philippines. Her soprano voice has been described as beautiful, powerful, and passionate.

Piccardi was born in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. By her teenage years she was singing frequently in churches and at schools and special events. She enjoyed expanded opportunities for study and performance when at age 18 she won the Young Artists Competition sponsored by the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, where she sang for the first time with an orchestra. The following year, she returned at their invitation to sing a sacred concert with them.

Four years later, she earned a B.Mus. in vocal performance from Federal University at Rio Grande do Sul, with Mazias de Oliveira as her voice teacher. Piccardi then traveled to the U.S., where she received a full scholarship for two years of study at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

She completed an M.Mus. in voice at DU in December 2005, under the guidance of Claudia Pinza. During that time she also studied for three summers with the best opera coaches in Italy and, in 2005, won first prize at the Puldin International Competition for Opera Singers in Bulgaria.

After performing in opera for five years in the U.S. and overseas, she made a decision to dedicate her voice to the singing of sacred music. Since 2006 she has sung in numerous churches in the U.S. and other countries.

Piccardi has conducted choirs in Brazil and the U.S. and has taught voice at Andrews University. She presently resides in Michigan, where she maintains a private voice studio.

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Sources: Program notes, "Benefit Concert for the Minnie Iverson Wood Performing Arts Hall," Adventist University of the Philippines, a series of concerts in Southern California in 2008; other numerous online sources.