Biography
Soprano Maya Kherani, praised by The New York Times as "lithe and radiant" and "quietly magnetic," brings gleaming precision and impassioned conviction to Baroque, Classical, and contemporary repertoire. She has worked with conductors including Ton Koopman, Václav Luks, Nicholas McGegan, Richard Egarr, Philippe Jaroussky, Leonardo García-Alarcón, Raphaël Pichon, Stephen Stubbs, Julian Perkins, and Patrick Dupré Quigley. This season she sings Messiah with Apollo's Fire under Jeannette Sorrell and with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Bach's Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with Boston Baroque in Marc Minkowski's inaugural season, and a debut with The English Concert under Harry Bicket.
Renowned for her Messiah, which she has sung with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Baroque, the Baltimore Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and American Bach, Maya is a leading Handel interpreter across oratorio, opera, and cantata repertoire. Her oratorio repertoire includes Belshazzar (Nitocris), and her opera roles include Partenope, Semele, Dorinda (Orlando), and Poppea (Agrippina). Her solo cantatas and motets include Armida abbandonata, La Lucrezia, Silete venti, and Agrippina condotta a morire. Her debut solo album, Solitaria, an all-Handel program, will be released on Lexicon Classics in 2027.
FIERY DRAMATIC EXPRESSIVITY AND TENDER COMPASSIONSan Francisco Classical Voice
Career highlights include debuts at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Château de Versailles Spectacles in L'incoronazione di Poppea (released on DVD); Sartorio's Orfeo at Opéra national de Montpellier under Philippe Jaroussky; the title role in the world premiere of Pay the Piper at Glyndebourne; and Govinda in Theofanidis's Siddhartha, She at the Aspen Music Festival under Robert Spano, also a world premiere. She collaborates frequently with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque, American Bach, and Portland Baroque Orchestra, and has been featured with Handel and Haydn Society, Opera Lafayette, and Vancouver Symphony, where she sang Mahler's Symphony No. 4 under Otto Tausk.
Beyond Handel, she has sung Bach's Jauchzet Gott, Non sa che sia dolore, and Mass in A major, as well as Vivaldi's In furore iustissimae irae, Gloria, and Vengo a voi, luci adorate. Her Mozart repertoire spans the sacred works, including the Great Mass in C Minor, Requiem, and Vesperae solennes de confessore, and Exsultate, jubilate, which she sang with the Baltimore Symphony, as well as the roles of Susanna, Despina, and, with Boston Baroque, Zerlina. Of her Susanna at Opera San José, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote of a performance "by turns tender, vivacious and full of dazzling vocal displays."
Her phrasings maintain the integrity of Bach's vocal line, never pushing too hard, never underpowered.Parterre
Maya's early career took her to Central City Opera, American Bach Soloists Academy, SongFest, Early Music Vancouver, and the Amherst Early Music Festival. She made her debut as Meera in the world premiere of Jack Perla's River of Light at Houston Grand Opera and sang Britomarte in Martín y Soler's L'arbore di Diana at West Edge Opera. As a conservatory student she sang the premieres of Neil Rolnick's Anosmia, released by Innova Records in 2013, and Dante De Silva's "graphic opera" Gesualdo with Opera Parallèle under Nicole Paiement.
Her awards include semi-finalist in the 2020 Glyndebourne Cup, third place in the 2021 Handel Aria Competition, and two Encouragement Awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Maya graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a B.S.E. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and certificates in Music Performance, Materials Science, and Robotics and Intelligent Systems. At Princeton she received the Isidore and Helen Sacks Award for excellence in Music Performance, danced and choreographed for Naacho South Asian Dance Company, and served as president and soloist of the Princeton University Glee Club. She holds a Master of Music with honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Professional Certificate from the Boston University Opera Institute.
She serves on the board of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale. She makes her home in the Bay Area with her husband and two young children. When not singing or parenting, Maya enjoys cooking, baking, hiking, reading novels, kettlebell training, and prestige sci-fi TV.