Ana María Martínez

Early life

Martínez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico; she is the daughter of Puerto Rican opera singer Evangelína Colón and Cuban psychoanalyst Ángel Martínez. Martínez' grandparents originated in Spain and France, and migrated to the Caribbean islands. Martínez grew up with a strict Catholic upbringing. She briefly attended the Boston Conservatory as a musical theater major, but dropped out and later received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the Juilliard School.

Personal life

Martínez met tenor Chad Shelton in 2000; they married and had one son. They divorced about seven years later.

Special performances

On March 11, 2016, Martínez sang Bach/Gounod's "Ave Maria" and "Pie Jesu" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem during the funeral services of First Lady Nancy Reagan.

She provided the singing voice for Monica Bellucci's character in the third season of Mozart in the Jungle.

Awards

Martínez has won prizes including the Pepita Embil Award, Operalia, and first prize at the Eleanor McCollum Awards. She won a Latin Grammy in 2001 for Classical Album for Isaac Albéniz's Merlin with Carlos Álvarez, Plácido Domingo, Jane Henschel and conductor José de Eusebio with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid.