Photograph by Arielle Doneson
gina perregrino is an american opera singer, teaching artist, and advocate.
Due to her notable work in opera, she has collaborated alongside authors such as Salmon Rushdie and Khaled Hosseini. Behind the screen, Gina has also been featured in the film Baawal (2023), directed by award winning director Nitesh Tiwari. The most recent opera/film-hybrid collaboration was with Afghan film director Roya Sadat and Roya Film House during the world premiere of the opera 1000 Splendid Suns with Seattle Opera.
Though primarily trained in opera, Gina's temperament is with the folk music of Mexico and Latin America. She is an avid performer of rancheras and mariachi, which she often performs in a trio with guitar and percussion. Her interpretation of Latin songs has also been featured in operatic crossover programs at companies like Santa Fe Opera.
Her work has been critically interpreted as "potent," possessing "swaggering strength" and "urgency" (Opera News), as she wraps her artistry in the deep roots of her own sensuality. As a performer, whether she is on the stage, behind the screen, or she is speaking, her goal is to actively embody feminine freedom and give women the permission to be unapologetically themselves.
Gina's success has never been a road without hurdles (and occasional potholes). After living in Europe, Gina returned from Berlin and turned the mirror on herself. She decided to write about and focus on what had most intensely colored her personal journey: the emotional, financial, and geographical realities of being a full-time opera singer.
She is passionate about transparency, about educating, and about bringing compassion to the music business. Along with being a teaching artist, Gina has been collaborating with a woman-led marketing team to bring her content and voice to the forefront of conversation. Read an article from the beginnings of her musings here, published in an Atlanta lifestyle magazine.
Along with having her master's degree from Manhattan School of Music, she credits discomfort and the nervous system as the teachers who have taught her the most.
Gina is attracted to those in history who are defiant, compassionate leaders.
Her favorite artist is Chavela Vargas.
"PERREGRINO ESPECIALLY HAS AN EXQUISITE EAR FOR SUBTLE, EXPRESSIVE GESTURES... [SHE] WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE EVENING."
- (National Sawdust)