Praised for her “intelligence, vulnerability, and a rich, soaring soprano” (Opera News), Maya Kherani returns to Philharmonia Baroque in 2025/26 season opener Fury and Heartbreak. Maya shares how she went from studying Engineering at Princeton to becoming a Baroque specialist, why Handel feels like home, and what makes this program—with its tales of love and betrayal—a “dream project.”
Philharmonia: Welcome back, Maya! Please share a little about your background for our audience.
I grew up in Missouri and near Houston, Texas, as a child of immigrants from India. My parents certainly had no clue about western classical music beyond the movie Amadeus (still one of my faves!), but I caught the singing bug while singing in school choir and musicals.
While I was an undergraduate at Princeton University as a Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering major, I had the opportunity to perform my first opera role (Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro), and that was it – I was hooked. I then went to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for my Masters in Vocal Performance, and even though I tried to go back to engineering for a bit, I couldn’t stay away from performing. That was 13 years ago now!
I’m thrilled to be performing again with Philharmonia Baroque, especially since I live just down the peninsula in Menlo Park. There’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed while on a gig, and I love being able to be near my two small children while getting to perform with such an incredible group.
What excites you about being part of this program and performing with Philharmonia Baroque this season?
In the last 5 years or so, I’ve specialized in the repertoire of the Baroque, with an emphasis on Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi. This concert is such a dream program, and I cannot wait to share these works with my Bay Area neighbors. I am also looking forward to singing with Maestro Luks! His interpretations are always exciting, nuanced, and novel. I’m sure to learn a lot working with him.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our audience?
The Muffat concert in 2023 was such a blast! Eight world-class soloists, double chorus, full period brass – boy that was a trip. I am friends with many of those soloists, so we just had such a ball. Good times 🙂
Soprano Maya Kherani portrays two heroines forsaken in love in works by Handel and Marcello in season opener Fury and Heartbreak. With Václav Luks conducting, Philharmonia brings the sound of period instruments to Venetian elegance and Neapolitan fire, culminating in Vivaldi’s In furore iustissimae irae—a dazzling storm of strings and vocal fireworks.
- Thursday, October 16, 2025 – 7:30 PM | Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
- Saturday, October 18, 2025 – 2:30 PM | First Congregational Church, Berkeley
- Sunday, October 19, 2025 – 2:30 PM | Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
Tickets: $40 to $125 | $20 tickets available for Under 30s. Save more with a subscription—as low as $84 for 3 concerts. Get tickets online or call the Box Office at (415) 295 2111.
