Praised for her “stunning” voice by Opera Wire and “riveting” performances by Opera News, Indira Mahajan has earned international acclaim with leading opera companies and orchestras throughout the world. Spanning repertoire from the Baroque to the foremost composers of today, she has distinguished herself as a versatile and celebrated artist.
For her performance as in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Opera News wrote, “The incandescent Indira Mahajan as Bess performed an unforgettable performance. Mahajan’s experience shows, not only in her detailed acting, but also in the exquisite way she shapes her vocal lines. It is a wonderful instrument.”
Ms. Mahajan is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Marian Anderson Award, alongside notable performers such as Denyce Graves, Angel Blue, and Lawrence Brownlee. She is also the recipient of the Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year Award from Dallas Opera and New York City Opera’s Debut Artist of the Year.
Recent performances include her debut with Atlanta Opera in Water Memory by Kitty Brazelton, Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Thumbprint by Kamala Sankaram. Operatic highlights include leading roles in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, I Vespri Siciliani, Aida, La Traviata, Puccini’s Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica, La Bohème, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Cavalleria Rusticana, and Lucia di Lammermoor.
Indira Mahajan has performed on the stages of many of the world’s premier opera houses, including Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra Comique and Théâtre de Caen in France, Semperoper Dresden, Oper Frankfurt, Hannover Staatsoper, Teatro Massimo Bellini, Oper Leipzig, Komische Oper Berlin, Grand Théâtre in Luxembourg, and London’s Royal Albert Hall. In the United States, she has performed with New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Dallas Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Dayton Opera, Virginia Opera, Orlando Opera, Portland Opera, and has been on the roster of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Her concert appearances include performances with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, l’Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Gustavo Dudamel’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela, and the Dallas Symphony at Carnegie Hall.
She can be heard on the Naxos recording with the Dallas Symphony conducted by Jaap van Sweden, and has been heard live as Aida, Madame Butterfly, Mimi in La Bohème, and Nedda in I Pagliacci on Public Radio, and has been seen in performance on “Live From Lincoln Center”
Born in New York City, Indira Mahajan began her musical journey as a violinist at the age of five. She later studied with her mother and first voice teacher, Juilliard-trained soprano Barbara Ann Mahajan, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father was born in Dalhousie, India, and emigrated to the United States as an Engineering Student, where he studied at New York University and later worked for CBS. Indira holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, a Master of Music and Advanced Professional Studies diploma from Mannes College of Music, and diplomas from the Accademia Musicale Ottorino Respighi in Italy and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art in New York City. Ms. Mahajan currently serves on the voice faculty at Wagner College in New York.