María Eugenia Barrios Acosta

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Soprano. Doctor of Sciences in Art from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), one of the most celebrated voices in Cuban lyrical art. Celebrated for her interpretations of such diverse characters as the leading roles of Madame Butterfly and Cavallería rusticana.

Osma Letra D, between Chaples and Palatino, in the Cerro neighborhood. This is where her childhood home is located, where she lived the first years of her life. It is a narrow street with sinuous, cramped constructions, with portals of high walls, above which, on the tips of her toes, little Eugenia would peek her little eyes to be able to see the world and fantasize about it. "She is the daughter of the Mayabeque and the Cuyaguateje," says Indio Naborí, since her mother was "a beautiful woman from Güines and her father a man of great wisdom from Pinar del Río."

She remembers her first performance more than 50 years ago in the following way: "I was not yet 20 years old then. She recounts that days before the presentation she knocked on the door of maestro Gonzalo Roig with the intention of asking him for an accompaniment to interpret the zarzuela Cecilia Valdés. They had never seen each other before.
-I sing the entrance of Cecilia Valdés as Marta Pérez -she said to Roig.
-Ah, yes? And who are you to be so sure that you can sing it like Marta Pérez? -Roig challenged her.
-I am a student of the Escuela Normal de Maestros and I want to sing it at my graduation, my classmates will sing the chorus for me -she responded provocatively.
-Well, let's verify it -replied the maestro defiantly.
And so it was. Without any academic training whatsoever, she sang the zarzuela as Marta Pérez in the Amphitheater of Teachers in Havana, with dress, chorus and flower in her hair. She was accompanied by the Banda Nacional de Concierto de La Habana and conducted by Gonzalo Roig, who from then on became her guide and tutor".

Years later, she was recommended by Roig and met Carmelina Santana Reyes, as the maestro insisted that she was the right singing teacher for his student. As soon as the teacher heard her, she made her her disciple.

She thus debuted on May 31, 1959 under the guidance of maestro Gonzalo Roig. That appearance alongside the Banda Nacional de Conciertos, among her singing teachers are included the names of Carmelina Santana Reyes and Nina Dorleak, with whom she studied at the Conservatorio Tchaikovski in Moscow.

Her interpretations have been supported by the baton of such relevant figures as Adolfo Guzmán, Rodrigo Prats, Félix Guerrero, Vladimir Markovich, Roberto Valera and Gnadi Dimitriak.

Not only in Cuba has the purity of her voice and the interpretative quality that identifies her been praised. Mexican and Colombian audiences know of her singularity and elegance. She has also received ovations in Poland, Korea, Spain, Portugal and Ecuador.

With her research on the interpretation of Cuban lyrical song, she achieved the degree of Doctor of Sciences in Art from the Instituto Superior de Arte, a subject that she herself maintains in her defense of her interpretations of works by Lecuona, Prats, Anckermann and other distinguished and essential authors of our best catalogs.

Having conducted a career without ostentation has allowed her to preserve her distinctive timbre, which now rises with dignity in the concerts that join this celebration that reaches our pages.

Cio-Cio, from the opera Madame Butterfly, by Giacomo Puccini
Cecilia Valdés, by Gonzalo Roig
Amalia Batista and Rosa la China, by Rodrigo Prats
María la O, by Ernesto Lecuona
La esclava, by José Mauri
Ecue-Yamba-O, by Roberto Sánchez Ferrer
La Verbena de la paloma, by Tomás Bretón
Los gavilanes, by Jacinto Guerrero
Luisa Fernanda, by Federico Moreno Torroba
La leyenda del beso and La del Soto del parral, by Soutullo and Juan Vert
La viuda alegre, by Franz Lehar
La del manojo de rosas, by Pablo Sorozábal
International Tours

She has performed in the Soviet Union in the Concert Hall of the Chaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Lomonosov University. At the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico. At the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

Innumerable are the accolades accumulated by this woman who continues to take to the stage with the firm step of someone who knows she is a master of what she does best.

Distinction for National Culture,
Alejo Carpentier Medal
Orden La Medalla José Tey
Diploma for Pedagogical Merit
Replica of the machete of Generalísimo Máximo Gómez
These and other honors comprise a long list. Encouraged from the scores of Cecilia Valdés or Tosca, Barrios has remained before a faithful public that now comes to renew their admiration for her.

It was the threshold of a trajectory that endures to our days, and now as interpreter, teacher or friend, María Eugenia can convene today colleagues and followers, who know the exquisiteness of her gifts and recognize her as a diva without pretense.