Laura Alonso Padín (born 2 January 1976), known as Laura Alonso, is a Spanish operatic soprano. She began her career in 1999 when she became a member of the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Germany. She has appeared as a guest artist with major theatres and musical ensembles internationally. Laura Alonso Padín currently lives in Berlin and New York. Early life and education Born in Vilagarcía de Arousa (Galicia, Spain), Alonso earned university diplomas in both singing and the violin in her native country before pursuing further studies in Germany. A scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enabled her to study voice under Aldo Baldin, Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox and lied with Hartmut Höll at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. Career In 1999, at 23 years of age, Alonso became a member of the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Germany. Over the past decade she has sung numerous roles with that opera house, including Blanche in Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, Mimí in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème, Pamina in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute, Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and Zdenka in Richard Strauss' Arabella among others. She is the recipient of the Aalto Theatre's Best Artist Award and performed at the theatre for the 2010 European City of Culture festivities. As a guest artist, Alonso has made appearances at numerous concert venues and theatres internationally. In Europe she has sung at leading theatres in Pisa, Düsseldorf, Mannheim, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Nancy, Braunschweig, Poissy, Freiburg, Lübeck, Barcelona, and Breno. Her performance credits also include appearances at the Auditorium in Rishon Le Zion (Israel), Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Teatro de Guanajuato, Philharmonie de Cologne, Musikhalle in Hamburg, Konzerthaus and Philharmonie in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Dortmund and Essen, Kuppel Saal in Hannover (Germany), Herodes Aticus in Athens, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Los Angeles Auditorium, and Palau de Valencia and Barcelona, among others. She has performed with several important conductors, including Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Heiko Mathias Förster, Philipp Jordan, Carlos Kalmar, Jiří Kout, Ion Marin, Víctor Pablo Pérez, and Stefan Soltesz. Some of the other opera roles in her repertoire include Antonia, Zerbinetta, Susanna, Oscar, Lucia, Lulu, Giulia, Nannetta, Sophie, Elvira, Amina, and Violetta in La traviata. She has collaborated with stage directors A. Pilavachi, De Tomasi, Johannes Schaaf, Pontiggia, Berndt, Schlingensief o Hilsdorf at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria