Alumni Success Story: Alumna Latonia Moore Hits All the Right Notes in the World of Opera

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In recent years, soprano Latonia Moore has been starring in lavish productions on the most prominent stages in the opera world in such arts capitals as New York, London, Zurich, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Dubai, and Tokyo.

The opera star has earned global success. For Moore’s interpretation of Aïda, the New York Times has described her as “richly talented.” The New York Times said, “her voice was radiant, plush and sizeable at its best, with gleaming top notes that broke through the chorus and orchestra during the crowd scenes.” And critic Lawrence Budmen wrote that she possesses “a voice several sizes larger than many sopranos who sing the role (in La bohème). Moore’s creamy middle register and exquisite high range commanded attention from her first entrance.”

Moore has also sung the lead in Tosca and earned praise for her performances in productions like Dead Man Walking. During the 2019-2020 season, she sang Serena in a new Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess show, which was broadcast as part of the Met’s Live in HD series. For her performance, Moore won the Grammy Award for best opera recording. The New York Times noted she “stopped the show … from almost vibrato-less, celestial high stretches to chilling, chesty low phrases, all of which she sang grippingly.”

Additional operatic highlights include appearances as Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera, Liù in Turandot at Royal Opera Covent Garden, the title role in Tosca and Elisabeth in Don Carlo with Opera Australia, the title role in Tosca with Washington National Opera, Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly and Mimi in La bohème with Semperoper Dresden, Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly at the Hamburg State Opera, Micaëla in Carmen, Liù in Turnadot, Elvira in Ernani, and Lucrezia in I due Foscari in Bilbao, Desdemona in Otello at Bergen National Opera, Serena in Porgy and Bess at both English National Opera and De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, and an appearance on the 50th anniversary gala of the Metropolitan Opera.

Orchestral highlights include the role of Lady Macbeth in a recording of Verdi’s Macbeth with Edward Gardner for Chandos, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Vienna Philharmonic and Gilbert Kaplan for Deutsche Grammpohon, Vivetta in L’Arlesiana and Fidelia in Edgar with the Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall, and Bess in Porgy as Bess with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Honors and awards include the Maria Callas Award from Dallas Opera, a Richard Tucker Foundation grant, first prize in the Marseilles Competition, and first prize in the International Competition dell’Opera in Dresden.

Moore Credits Aldine ISD for the Great Music Education She Received

Singing in the great opera houses around the world is not where a little girl from Trinity Gardens thought she would be. She hadn’t been exposed to classical music until her family moved to Aldine. She attended Oleson Elementary and Orange Grove Elementary. Moore joined the Hambrick Middle School and MacArthur HS choirs. While in high school, she made the All-State Choir.

“I was poor, but I loved music,” said Moore. “Through my family, I was exposed to gospel music. I even joined the choir at New Sunrise Baptist Church, where my grandfather was a pastor. But it was in Aldine ISD where I got exposed to a wide variety of music. I had never heard classical music until then. The first opera I attended was a student in middle school.”

While at MacArthur HS, she explored classic and jazz musical genres; Moore also worked with then jazz band director José Antonio Diaz.

Moore called herself a music nerd. She also describes the music program in Aldine ISD as ‘high art education,” adding that it was the best music education she could receive. Years later, she found out that some schools didn’t teach music theory.

Moore’s music teacher at MacArthur taught her theory and sight-reading so well that she tutored her student peers. She was also allowed to teach and mentor students in theory and sight-reading. By the time she got to college, she was well ahead of others who did not have her musical education and experience.

“I am forever in Aldine’s debt. I was selected to form part of the prestigious GRAMMY Camp®, which highlight is to perform in front of some of the music’s biggest names during the annual GRAMMY Awards®. The trip would have cost $3,000. It was money I didn’t have. The school district paid for me to be able to participate in the life-changing experience. I remember sitting next to another student who had made the GRAMMY choir and telling him that I would win a GRAMMY one day. He looked at me like, ‘Sure you are.’ I told him that I meant it. I am proud to say that 25 years later, I did win a Grammy.”

College and Her Road to Acclaim

Moore began her studies at the University of North Texas, where she intended to study jazz. Fortunately for opera lovers, one of her professors, Patty Johnstone, convinced her to study classical music.

“I fell in love with opera after realizing ‘as an opera singer, you can be anybody,'” said Moore. “When I step on stage, I try to keep my performance as close to how I believe that character would react. I put every bit of my energy into my performances and career.”

She then continued her studies as a student of Bill Schumann at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts, where she graduated in 2005.

Her opera debut took place at the Palm Beach Opera in 1998. As a college student, Houston Opera Ebony hired Moore that same year. In 2000, she won the hearing of the National Council of the Metropolitan Opera. In March 2012, she made a sensation when she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera – with live streaming worldwide – in the role of Aïda, replacing Violeta Urmana at the last minute. In 2008, in New York, the singer drew critical acclaim on Puccini’s Edgar with the New York Opera Orchestra.

In January 2016, the soprano played Puccini’s Tosca in a new montage of the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. In April 2016, she played Cio-Cio-San, a lead role in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, at the San Diego Opera. She won critical recognition for her performance and vocal interpretation with her “rich, flexible and wide-ranging soprano voice.” Moore performed with Opera Australia in the title role of Puccini’s Tosca in 2018, critically acclaimed for “complex acting,” which highlighted her voice of “luxurious color and bright highs.”

In 2019, Moore sang Serena on the opening night of the Porgy and Bess season at the Metropolitan Opera. And the rest is history.

Seasons 2021/2022 and Season 2022/2023

In the organization’s history, Moore starred as Billie in the Metropolitan Opera’s first Black opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, by a Black composer Terrence Blanchard. Fans have seen Moore at the Met appear as Serena in Porgy and Bess, with Dallas Opera in Madame Butterfly, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Fire Shut Up in My Bones, and at LA Opera in Aïda. She will return to the Met in the 2022-2023 season in the title role of Aïda, as Musetta in La bohème, and as Emelda Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion, an opera in jazz.

The Soprano Has Not Forgotten Her Aldine Roots and Would Like to Pay It Forward

Though indeed a star today, Moore does not demand to be treated like one. When the school district’s Office of Communications sent an email to her contact address, she — not an assistant — took the time to respond once she saw “Aldine ISD” mentioned in the request.

Moore is not a prima donna or a diva. Moore was very down-to-earth, positive, and grateful during the interview.

She mentioned that she is in Houston often visiting family. The renowned singer immediately offered to speak to Aldine students.

“You don’t have to pay me. I owe much to the education, experiences, and opportunities Aldine ISD gave me. Paying it forward is the best thank-you I can think of. I want students to know that in any career, you have to research what is right for you and find the teachers and mentors who will guide you in a way that is right for you. Everyone has obstacles and shortcomings, but to be successful, you have to see that those don’t matter. You can’t just say, ‘I have these shortcomings, and that’s what prevents me from moving ahead.’ You have to be a chameleon and find your way.”