Georgian-American mezzo-soprano Mariami Bekauri has been praised for her “warm” and “handsome” tone. Bekauri is a recent graduate of the Fredonia School of Music and has begun her performance career in Central and Western New York.  She has appeared with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hillman Opera, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Buffalo Opera Unlimited, Geneva Light Opera, Harmonia Chamber Singers and Finger Lakes Opera.

This December, Ms. Bekauri can be seen onstage with Buffalo Opera Unlimited as the sorceress Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in Maschera. In October she gave the recital “Love’s Labour’s Lost” Erwin H. Johnson Memorial Fund presenting a variety of operatic highlights as well as selections from Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs. Ms. Bekauri started 2022 with the premiere of two new works by composer Jamie Leigh Sampson: the aria “Broken” for mezzo-soprano from Sampson’s opera “In a Flash,” and “Thousand Times a Thousand” for soprano, mezzo-soprano, bassoon and piano four-hands. Additionally Bekauri revisited Sampson’s composition “American Mother” for mezzo-soprano and piano which she premiered in March 2020. All three works will be performed as part of Sampson’s faculty recital, Uncommon Ground. Earlier in the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Bekauri released her second virtual recital, Songs to the Moon, and appeared with the BPO as part of their Bewitching Broadway Halloween concert.

In the 2020-2021 season, Ms. Bekauri appeared twice as a soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. In December 2020, she was the alto soloist for the WNED broadcast of “A Buffalo Messiah” (the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus’s virtual performance of Handel’s Messiah), and again as alto soloist for Vivaldi’s Gloria sung live at Artpark and the Chautauqua Institute. In February 2021, Ms. Bekauri released the first of her online recitals, Frauenliebe und Leben: A Virtual Valentine.

In the 2019 season Ms. Bekauri made her debut in the titular role of Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Buffalo Opera Unlimited to great acclaim. She appeared as Barbarina and covered Marcellina in Geneva Light Opera’s July 2019 production of Le Nozze di Figaro. Bekauri was also a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus’s GRAMMY Award winning recording of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua for Best Choral Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

In the 2018-2019 season, Ms. Bekauri appeared with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as the alto soloist in Bach Cantata BWV 79, Gott der Herr ist unser Sonn und Schild, and with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra as the alto soloist in Salieri’s Emperor Mass in D major.  Additional performances included the Bach Magnificat, BWV 243 with First Presbyterian Church of East Aurora as alto soloist, and the chamber opera Saturday, 29 A. D. as Claudia Procula at Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Ms. Bekauri covered the roles of Berta in Geneva Light Opera's July 2018 production of The Barber of Seville, and the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Westminster Presbyterian Church in January 2018.   In March 2018, she sang the role of the Prioress in scenes from Dialogues of the Carmelites in the Fredonia Student Opera Theatre's annual Spring Opera Scenes.

In December of 2017 she appeared in The Magic Flute with Buffalo Opera Unlimited as the Second Lady, as a soloist with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra for their Poinsettia Pops Concert, and as the Alto Soloist for Vivaldi's Gloria with Presbyterian Church of Geneva, NY.  In October 2017, Ms. Bekauri appeared as both Carmen and Dorabella in the Hillman Opera 60th Anniversary Gala in scenes from Carmen and Cosi fan tutte respectively.  In February 2017, Ms. Bekauri appeared with WYNCO as Cecilia March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women, and was a soloist for both the Poinsettia and Holiday Pops Concerts.

Ms. Bekauri’s other operatic credits include Mrs. Nolan (The Medium), also with the Hillman Opera, Maria (Maria de Buenos Aires), Mad Margaret (Ruddigore), and Melior (The Legend of the Fairy Melusine). Her solo performances include mezzo-soprano soloist in Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning and alto soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the Brown University Chorus.  She has also appeared as a soloist with the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Community Chorus and the Finger Lakes Camerata. 

Ms. Bekauri is a 2017 SUNY Fredonia Concerto Competition Finalist and is the recipient of the Charles C. Eikenburg Scholarship for excellence in vocal and operatic performance for the 2017-18 academic year at SUNY Fredonia.  She holds a Master of Science in Materials Science Engineering from Brown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and in Music from Wellesley College.