Miguel A. Ortega Bañales

Miguel A. Ortega Bañales, Mexican tenor, conductor, and pianist, is a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he has received an assistantship to earn a DMA in vocal
performance and pedagogy. Ortega also obtained his master’s degree in voice performance and choral conducting from CU Boulder. During his bachelor’s degree he held a position as vocal TA and served as a piano collaborator for the music department at Berea College, Kentucky. Recent appearances include main roles in several productions at Eklund Opera such as Alfredo in La Traviata (2021), Rodolfo in La Bohème (2022), Fenton in Falstaff (2023), and Captain E.J. Smith in Titanic (2024). In addition, he has served as an assistant conductor for several productions at Eklund Opera, University of Colorado Boulder.

His latest collaborations include the Symphony of the Rockies, Colorado’s Ars Nova Singers, Steamboat Opera, Kentucky Bach Choir, and Boulder Opera Company. Ortega has been distinguished with the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition’s 1st Prize Winner in 2024, the Metropolitan Opera National Council’s “Middle Tennessee District Winner” prize in 2020, the “Gina Scaggs Epifano Audience Favorite Award” in 2018’s National Association of Teachers of Singing vocal competition in Kentucky, as well as the “First Place Winner Classical Adult” prize in three consecutive editions of Kentucky's NATS vocal competition during 2017, 2018 and 2019.