Andean Soprano Sylvia Falcón blurs borders between opera and Indigenous music

Andean soprano Sylvia Falcón performs a musical style that merges classical opera with traditional Andean music to challenge the rigid categories of the Peruvian music industry.

Falcón, a Quechua singer and producer, uses her technical skills to create a unique sound that honors her highland heritage. She argues that Peru's musical diversity should not be divided into separate silos, but instead treated as a single tapestry of ancestral and contemporary voices.

Her approach combines the agility of coloratura opera with the spirit of Andean traditions. Falcón grew up in Lima, where her parents moved from Quechua-speaking communities in the Ayacucho and Huancavelica regions. Because her parents faced discrimination in the capital, they did not teach her children the Quechua language to protect them. Falcón later pursued her own studies to reconnect with her roots. She also studied anthropology, focusing her research on how music helps people maintain collective memory and identity.

The artist performed at New York University and in Abu Dhabi to represent Peruvian culture. She seeks to carry forward a legacy of indigenous pride, similar to the work of composer Theodoro Valcárcel. Falcón also plans to release a version of the Mambo album by Yma Sumac, a singer who achieved international fame in the 1950s and 1960s but remained relatively unknown in her own country.