“Ailyn Pérez, who sings the role of Mimì, performed last week in a gala concert at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall as winner of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award for young singers. The Chicago-born soprano sings with a warm lyricism that’s perfect for the role of Puccini’s gentle, loving, tubercular seamstress. Her evenly produced, well-focused voice projects effortlessly. Pérez spun long lines of soft melody as she introduces herself to the poet Rodolfo in Sì, mi chiamano Mimì and when she says she will leave him in Donde lieta uscì, the soprano rose to a passage of soaring lyricism as she tells her lover to keep her pink bonnet as a memory of their love. Throughout the evening, she never disappointed, wringing all the emotion from the moments of grand passion, from her desire for winter to last forever so they would never leave each other to her feverish dying expressions of love for Rodolfo.”

David Fleshler – South Florida Classical Review